political aitir IStfntal $v&Qmmt$. 



POLITICAL FRAGMENTS 

OF 

ARCHYTAS, CHARONDAS, ZALEUCUS, 

AND OTHER 

ANCIENT PYTHAGOREANS, 

PRESERVED BY STOB^SUS ; 

AND ALSO, 

ETHICAL FRAGMENTS 



tyievotlw, 



THE CELEBRATED COMMENTATOR ON THE GOLDEN PYTHAGORIC 

VERSES, 

PRESERVED BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 



TRANSLATED FROM THE GREEK 

BY THOMAS TAYLOR. 



AficnrTiOTOQ eifxi <ps\\og u>g 
VTrep EpKog aXfiag. 

Pind. Pyth. Od. 2. 

Just like a cork unmerged I keep 
On the broad barrier of the deep. 



<£J)fefotcfe : 

PRINTED BY C. WHITTINGHAM, 
COLLEGE HOUSE ; 

FOR THE TRANSLATOR, MANOR PLACE, WALWORTH. 
1822. 









Id 



IN EXCHANGI 
N.Y. Put), Lib, 



INTRODUCTION. 



The collection of Pythagoric Frag- 
ments contained in this volume must be 
considered by every one as highly valuable 
if their antiquity only is regarded ; but by 
the lover of genuine wisdom they will be 
deemed inestimable, as proceeding from 
the school of the father of philosophy. 

Of the greater part of the authors of these 
fragments little more than the country in 
which they lived is known. But of Cha- 
rondas, and Zaleucus, those celebrated le- 
gislators, Seneca in his 90th Epistle informs 
us that they learnt their laws in the silent 
and sacred recess of Pythagoras. Though 



VI 

Seneca, however, Diodorus Siculus, Dio- 
genes Laertius, Porphyry, and Iamblichus 
make both Charondas and Zaleucus to be 
the disciples of Pythagoras ; yet Dr. Bent- 
ley, in his Dissertation on Phalaris, seems 
more disposed to think that they were not 
Pythagoreans than that they were. At the 
conclusion, however, of his discussion of 
this subject he says, " I do not assert any 
thing positively on either side of this whole 
debate about the two lawgivers [Charondas 
and Zaleucus]. I rather desire to stand 
a neuter, till the matter shall be decided 
by some abler hand*/' But the man of 
intellect who reads this concession of the 
doctor, will doubtless laugh when he finds 
him also asserting, " Thus much I am sure 
may be safely concluded, that if Zaleucus 
was really Pythagoras' disciple, the learned 
Mr. DodwelFs calculation must be wrong 
[respecting the age of Pythagoras]. For 

* Dissertation on Phalaris, p. 273. 



Vll 



which is more probable, that a Mr. Dod- 
well was mistaken in this particular, or that 
Diodorus Siculus, Laertius, Porphyry, and 
Iamblichus were wrong, who lived so many 
centuries prior to him, and who were able 
to derive information so much more deci- 
sive respecting Zaleucus, through books 
which were then extant, but which have 
long since utterly perished ? By Vossius *, 
however, who, though he was not perhaps 
so great a verbal critic as Bentley, was cer- 
tainly a man of more intellect •f , the whole 

* In Lib. de Philosophorum Sectis. 

t The following extract from Bentley's Eighth Sermon at 
Bovle's Lectures, sufficiently shows the doctor's deficiency 
in intellect. " Nor do we count it any absurdity, that such a 
vast and immense universe should be made for the sole use 
of such mean and unworthy creatures as the children of men. 
For if we consider the dignity of an intelligent being, and 
put that in the scales against brute inanimate matter, we 
may affirm, without overvaluing human nature, that the soul 
of one virtuous and religious man is of greater worth and 
excellency than the sun and his planets, and all the stars in 
the world." For this opinion is not only stupid and arro- 
gant in the extreme, but is also contrary to the doctrine of 
the Scriptures, of which the doctor was a teacher. For as I 



Vlll 



of these fragments were considered as pre- 
cious monuments ; and he wonders, and is 

have observed in p. 13 of the Introduction to my transla- 
tion of Proclus On the Theology of Plato, " the stars are 
not called Gods by the Jewish legislator, as things inanimate 
like statues fashioned of wood or stone/' This is evident 
from what is said in the book of Job, and the Psalms. 
'■ Behold even the moon and it shine th not, yea the stars 
are not pure in his sight. How much less man that is a 
worm, and the son of man which is a worm?" (Job, xxv. 
v. 5 and 6). And, " When I consider thy heavens, the 
work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast 
ordained ; what is man that thou art mindful of him, and the 
son of man that thou visitest him." (Psalm viii. v. 3 and 4.) 
It is evident, therefore, from these passages, that the heavens 
and the stars are more excellent than man; but nothing 
inanimate can be more excellent than that which is ani- 
mated. To which may be added, that in the following verse 
David says, that God has made man a little lower than the 
angels. But the stars, as I have demonstrated in the above 
mentioned Introduction, were considered by Moses as angels 
and Gods ; and consequently they are animated beings, and 
superior to man. 

Farther still, it is said in Psalm xi. v. 4, that " the Lord's 
throne is in heaven." And again, in Isaiah, chap. Ixvi. v. 1. 
" Thus saith the Lord, the heaven is my throne, and the 
earth is my footstool," If, therefore, the heavens are the 
throne of Deity, they must evidently be deified. For nothing 
can come into immediate contact with divinity, without 
being divine. Hence, says Simplicius, (in Comment, in 
Lib. ii. de Caelo.) " That it is connascent with the human 



IX 



at the same time indignant, at their not 
being more frequently perused. 

QfHierocles, the author of the Ethical 
Fragments, something more is known 
than of the authors of the Political 
Fragments, through what is said of him 

soul to think the celestial bodies are divine, is especially 
evident from those (the Jews), who look to these bodies 
through preconceptions about divine natures. For they also 
say that the heavens are the habitation of God, and the 
throne of God, and are alone sufficient to reveal the glory 
and excellence of God to those who are worthy ; than which 
assertions what can be more venerable ? " 

Indeed, that the heavens are not the inanimate throne and 
residence of Deity, is also evident from the assertion in the 
nineteenth Psalm, that " the heavens declare the glory of 
God." For R. Moses, a very learned Jew, (See Gaffarel's 
Unheard-of Curiosities, p. 391.) says, " that the word saphar 
to declare, or set forth, is never attributed to things inani- 
mate " Hence he concludes, " that the heavens are not 
without some soul; which, says he, is no other than that of 
those blessed intelligences who govern the stars, and dispose 
them into such letters as God has ordained; declaring unto 
us men, by means of this writing, what events we are to 
expect. And hence this same writing is called by all the 
ancients, chetab hamelachim ; that is to say, the writing of 
the angels." 



by Suidas,Damascius*,and iEneasGazaeus. 
For from the last of these we learn that he 
flourished about the end of the fifth century 
of the Christian era; and from the other 
two, that he was a Platonic philosopher of 
Alexandria : that his conceptions were 
magnificent, and his genius sublime ; that 
he was very eloquent, astonished his audi- 
tors by the beauty and copiousness of his 
language, and contended with Plato him- 
self in elegance of diction, and fertility of 
intellect. One of his auditors was Theose- 
bius, a man of great penetration, who at 
different times twice heard Hierocles orally 
explaining the Gorgias of Plato ; and 
though on comparing the latter with the 
former explanation, he found nothing in 
the one which might be said to be the same 
with what was in the other, yet each of 

* In the Fragments of his Life of Isidorus the Platonist, 
preserved by Photius. The greater part of what Suidas has 
said about Hierocles is taken from these memoirs of Isi- 
dorus. 



XI 

them unfolded as much as possible the in- 
tention of Plato in that dialogue — which, 
as Damascius well observes, was a thing of 
a most singular nature, and clearly demon- 
strates the amplitude of his conceptions. 
We are informed, also, by the same Theo- 
sebius, that Hierocles once said, when 
expounding Plato, that the discourses of 
Socrates* resembled cubes, because they 
remained firm wherever they might fall. 

The following circumstance, says Suidas, 
evinces the fortitude and magnanimity of 
Hierocles. On coming to Byzantium, he 
offended the prevailers (Tr^ocsy^ovo-c roig Kga- 
:) i. e. the Christians -f; and being brought 



tovcti 



* The discourses of Socrates in Plato. 

t For so the Christians were called by the heathens, 
when the religion of the latter was rapidly declining, and 
that of the former had gained the ascendency. Thus Por- 
phyry, in a passage preserved by Theodoret, (in lib. i. De 
Curat. Graec. Superst.) Xa/U:oc)£-oc yap rj irpoq dcovg ocog 
aiTEipr} re icai rpa^Eia, rjg 7ro\\ag arpairovq ^tapfiapoi jjlev 
e'&vpoy, EX\)/i/£f ce EirXav^Qy^av, ol Ze cpaTOWTes rjcrj kcic 



Xll 



into a court of justice by them was whipped. 
But while the blood was flowing, he took 

die^dsipav. i. e. " For the way which leads to the Gods is 
bound with chains of brass, and is arduous and rough, many 
paths of which were indeed discovered by the Barbarians ; 
but the Greeks have wandered from them, and they are 
entirely corrupted by those who now prevail." 

This passage of Porphyry, derived its origin from the 
following oracle of Apollo, preserved by Eusebius : 

AiTEivrj yap oe)oc fxaicapoov rpri^ta re iroWov, 
XaXfco^frotc ra irpura Sioiyo/bitvt) TrvXsuaiv. 
A.Tpair£TOi 2)E zaaaiv adso-tyaTOi eyyeyaviai, 
Ac irpuroi jUEpoTuv £7r' aireipova irprfeiv ctyrjvav 
Ot to koXov TTLVOVTSS v$(op NaXwrt^oc aitjc/ 
IloXXac icat Qoivlkeq odovs /uaicapcov ecarjcrav, 
\oavpioi A.vc)oi re, teat Rflpauov yevog avdpuv. 

But for Eflpaiwr, in the last line, I read XaXoouo?*/, it not 
being at all reasonable to suppose that an oracle of Apollo 
would say that the Hebrews knew many paths which led to 
the knowledge of the Gods. It is probable, therefore, that 
either Aristobulus the Jew, well known for interpolating the 
writings of the heathens, or the wicked Eusebius, as he is 
called by the Emperor Julian, has fraudulently substituted 
the former word for the latter. The Oracle, with this emen- 
dation, will be in English as follows : 

The path by which to deity we climb 

Is arduous, rough, ineffable, sublime ; 

And the strong massy gates, through which we pass 

Id oar first course, are bound with chains of brass. 



Xlll 



some of it in the hollow of his hand, and 
besprinkled with it the judge, at the same 
time exclaiming : 

Cyclops, since human flesh is thy delight, 
Now drink this wine *. 

Being banished, most probably in con- 
sequence of this magnanimous behaviour, 
and returning some time after to Alexan- 
dria, he gave philosophical lectures to his 
auditors in his usual manner. Suidas adds, 
that the grandeur of the conceptions of 



Those men the first who of Egyptian birth 
Drank the fair water of Nilotic earth, 
Disclosed by actions infinite this road, 
And many paths to God Phoenicians show'd. 
This road the Assyrians pointed ont to view. 
And this the Lydians and Chaldeans knew. 

But when Porphyry says that the Greeks have wandered 
from the path which leads to divinity, he alludes to their 
worshipping men as Gods ; which, as I have shown in the 
Introduction to my translation of Proclus On the Theology 
of Plato, is contrary to the genuine doctrine of the heathen 
religion; and was the cause of its corruption, and final 
extinction, among the Greeks and Romans. 

* Odyss. lib. ix. v. 347. 



XIV 



Hierocles may be learnt from the perusal of 
his Commentaries On the Golden Verses 
of the Pythagoreans, and from his treatise 
On Providence * ; in which works it ap- 
pears that he was sublimely wise in his life, 
but not accurate in his knowledge. Da- 
mascius also says, that Hierocles was not 
at all deficient in any thing pertaining 
to merely human science, but that he was 
by no means replete with blessed concep- 
tions, i. e. with conceptions which are the 
offspring of an entheastic, or divinely in- 
spired energy ; and which are to be found 
in abundance in the writings of Plato, Plo- 
tinus, Iamblichus, Proclus, and Damascius 
himself. This, indeed, will be immediately 
evident -f to the man who has penetrated 

* Fragments of this work are to be found in Photius. 
But they are fragments of a treatise or treatises, On Provi- 
dence, Fate, and Free Will. 

t An adept in the philosophy of Plato will at once be 
convinced of the truth of this assertion, by comparing what 
Hierocles has said about prayer in his Commentary On the 
Golden Verses of the Pythagoreans, with what is said re- 



XV 



the depth of these writings, but to the merely 

specting it by Iamblichus, in his Treatise on the Mysteries ; 
and by Proclus, at the beginning of the second book of his 
Commentary On the Timasus of Plato. See the Introduc- 
tion to the second Alcibiades, in Vol. 4. of my translation of 
Plato, and the Notes to my translation of Maximus Tyrius ; 
in which the reader will find what Iamblichus, Proclus, and 
Hierocles have said on this subject; And that he was not 
consummately accurate in his knowledge, will be evident by 
comparing what he says in his above mentioned Commen. 
tary, about that middle order of beings denominated the 
illustrious heroes, with what Iamblichus and Proclus have 
most admirably unfolded concerning them. And this will 
still more plainly appear from what he says about the cele- 
brated tetrad, or tetractys of the Pythagoreans, in p. 166, 
and 170, of the same Commentary. For in both these 
places, he clearly asserts, that this tetrad is the same with 
the Demiurgus, or maker of the universe. Thus, in the 
former of these places icai rrjy rerpada Trr^yrjv rrjg aidiou 
Siaicoa/Lirjaeus, airotyaiPErai rt}v ctvrtjv ovaav ra> h^fjuovoyco 
6ea). i. e. " And the author of these verses shows that the 
tetrad, which is the fountain of the perpetual orderly distri- 
bution of things, is the same with the God who is the Demi- 
urgus. And in the latter passage, tan yap as ttyatiEv, drj/ui- 
ovpyog T(ov oXcov \cai airia rj rerpag, dtos roqroc, airios rov 
ovpaviov Kai aiadtjrov Oeov. i. e. " For as we have said, the 
tetrad is the Demiurgus and cause of the wholes of the uni- 
verse, being an intelligible God, the source of die celestial 
and sensible God." The tetrad, however, or the animal 
itself, (to avro)'((i>ov) of Plato ; who, as Syrianus justly ob- 
serves, was the best of the Pythagoreans; subsists at the 
extremity of the intelligible triad, as is most satisfactorily 



XVI 



verbal critic is a circumstance involved in 
Cimmerian darkness. 

shown by Proclus in the third book of his Treatise On the 
Theology, and in the fourth book of his Commentary On the 
Timaeus of Plato. But the Demiurgus, as it is demon- 
strated by the same incomparable man, in the fifth book of 
the former of these works, subsists at the extremity of the 
intellectual triad. And between these two triads another 
order of Gods exists, which is denominated intelligible, and 
at the same time intellectual, as partaking of both the ex- 
tremes. The English reader who has a genius for such spe- 
culations, will be convinced of this by diligently perusing my 
translations of the above mentioned works. Notwithstand- 
ing, however, the knowledge of Hierocles was not so con- 
summately accurate on certain most abstruse theological 
dogmas as that of Iamblichus, Proclus, and Damascius, yet 
where ethics are concerned, his notions are most correct, 
most admirable, and sublime. 



POLITICAL FRAGMENTS 



OF THE 



PYTHAGOREANS. 



FROM THE TREATISE OF HIPPODAMUS THE 
THURIAN ON A REPUBLIC. 

I say that the whole of a polity is divided into 
three parts. And one part, indeed, consists 
of good men, who manage the public affairs. 
But the second part consists of those who are 
powerful. And the third part is composed of 
those who are employed in supplying and pro- 
curing the necessaries of life. I denominate, 
however, the first multitude [in a polity] that 
which consults [for the good of the whole] ; the 
second, that which is auxiliary; and the third, 
that which pertains to mechanical and sordid 
occupations. Of these also, I say that the two 
first belong to those whose condition in life is 
liberal; but the third, to those who labour to 
procure subsistence. And of these indeed, 

B 



that which consults is the best; but that which 
is employed in sordid occupations is the worst; 
and that which is auxiliary, is a medium be- 
tween the two. That which consults likewise 
[for the general good] ought to govern; but 
that which is engaged in sordid occupations 
ought to be governed : and that which is auxi- 
liary ought both to govern and be governed. 
For that which consults for the general good 
previously deliberates what ought to be done ; 
but that which is of an auxiliary nature, so far 
as it is belligerent, rules over the whole of the 
mechanical tribe; but so far as it antecedently 
receives counsel from others, is itself governed. 
Of these parts, however, each again receives 
a triple division. For of that which consults, 
one part presides, another governs, and another 
counsels for the general good. And with re- 
spect to the part which presides, it is that 
which plans, contrives, and deliberates about 
what pertains to the community, prior to the 
other parts, and afterwards refers its counsels 
to the senate. But the governing part is either 
that which now rules [for the first time], or 
which has before performed that office. And 
with respect to the third part, which consults 
for the general good, this receives the advice of 
the parts prior to itself, and confirms by its 
suffrages and authority whatever is referred to 



its decision. And, in short, it is requisite that 
those who preside should refer the affairs of 
the community to that part which consults for 
the general good ; but that this latter part 
should refer these affairs through the Praetors 
to the Convention. 

In a similar manner also of that part which 
is auxiliary, powerful, and efficacious, one part 
is of a governing nature; another part is de- 
fensive; and the remaining, which is the greater 
part, is gregal and military. It is the govern- 
ing part, therefore, from which the leaders of 
armies, the prefects of cohorts, the bands of 
soldiers, and the vanguards are derived, and 
universally all those who rank as leaders. But 
the whole genus of the vanguards consists of 
those that are most brave, most impetuous, 
and most daring. And the remaining multi- 
tude is gregarious and military. Of the third 
part, however, which is engaged in sordid occu- 
pations, and in labouring to procure the neces- 
saries of life, one part consists of husbandmen, 
and those who are employed in the elaboration 
of the land ; but another part consists of arti- 
ficers, who procure such instruments and ma- 
chines as the occasions of life require; and 
another part is engaged in peregrinations and 
merchandise, and in exporting to foreign re- 
gions such things as are superabundant in the 

b2 



city, and importing into it other things from 
foreign countries. The systems of political 
society, therefore, are coarranged through so 
many and such like parts. 

In the next place, it is requisite to speak of 
their adaptation and union. Since, however, 
the whole of political society may be perfectly 
assimilated to a lyre, in consequence of requir- 
ing apparatus and coaptation, and also because 
it is necessary that it should be touched and 
used musically; — this being the case, I have 
sufficiently spoken above about the apparatus 
of a polity, and shown from what and from how 7 
many particulars it is constituted. I shall now, 
therefore, endeavour to speak of the coaptation 
and union of these. I say then, that political 
society is coadapted from the following three 
particulars, from disciplines, the study of man- 
ners [or customs], and from the laws ; and that 
through these three, man is instructed, and be- 
comes more worthy. For disciplines are the 
sources of erudition, and cause the desires to 
be impelled to virtue. But the laws, partly de- 
taining by fear, repell men [from the commis- 
sion of crimes,] and partly alluring by honours 
and gifts, excite them [to virtue]. And man- 
ners and studies fashion the soul like wax, and 
through their continued energy impress in it 
propensities that become, as it were, natural. 



It is necessary, however, that these three should 
have an arrangement in conjunction with the 
beautiful, the useful, and the just; and that 
each of these three should, if possible, have all 
these for its final intention; but if not all of 
them, it should at least have two or one of 
them as the mark at which it aims, in order 
that disciplines, manners, and laws may be 
beautiful, just, and advantageous. In the first 
place, however, the beautiful in conduct should 
be preferred; in the second place the just; and 
in the third place, the useful. And univer- 
sally the endeavour should be, that through 
these the city may become, in the most emi- 
nent degree, consentaneous and concordant 
with its parts, and may be free from sedition 
and hostile contention. But this will be ef- 
fected, if the passions in the souls of youth are 
disciplined, and in things pleasing and painful 
are led to mediocrity, and if the possessions of 
men are moderate, and they derive their sub- 
sistence from the cultivation of the earth. 
And this will also be accomplished, if good 
men rule over those that are in want of virtue; 
skilful men over those that are deficient in 
skill ; and rich men over those things that re- 
quire a certain largess and expenditure; and 
if also appropriate honours are distributed to 
those who govern in all these in a becoming 



(i 



manner. But there are three causes which are 
incitements to virtue, viz. fear, desire, and 
shame. The law, however, is able to produce 
fear, but custom shame: for those that have 
been accustomed to act well, will be ashamed 
to do any thing that is base. And disciplines 
are capable of producing desire. For they at 
one and the same time assign the causes of 
things, and attract the soul, and they espe- 
cially effect this when they are accompanied 
with exhortation. Hence it is necessary that 
the souls of young men should be sufficiently 
instructed in what pertains to senates, fellow- 
ship, and associations, both military and politi- 
cal, but that the tribe of elderly men should be 
coadapted to things of this kind ; since young 
men, indeed, require correction and instruction, 
but elderly men are in want of benevolent 
associations, and a mode of living unattended 
with pain. 

Since, therefore, we have said, that the wor- 
thy man is perfected through three things, viz. 
through customs, laws, and disciplines, it is 
requisite to consider how customs or manners 
are usually corrupted, and how they become 
permanent. We shall find, then, that customs 
are corrupted in two ways: for they are either 
corrupted through ourselves or through fo- 
reigners. And through ourselves, indeed, 



either through our flying from pain, or through 
our pursuit of pleasure. For in consequence 
of flying from pain, we do not endure labour; 
and through our pursuit of pleasure, we reject 
what is good. Labours, however, procure 
good for mankind ; but pleasures evil. Hence 
men through pleasures, becoming incontinent 
and remiss, are rendered effeminate in their 
souls, and more profuse in their expenses. 
But customs and manners are corrupted 
through foreigners, when a multitude of these 
dwelling with us, rejoice in the success of 
their emporetic employment; or when those 
who dwell in the suburbs, being lovers of plea- 
sure and luxury, impart their manners to the 
neighbouring inhabitants. On this account it 
is necessary that the legislators, and prefects 
of the mass of the people, should diligently ob- 
serve whether the customs of the city are care- 
fully preserved, and proceed equally through 
all the citizens. And farther still, they should 
observe whether the genuine and indigenous 
multitude, of which the polity consists, remains 
pure and unmingled with any other nation ; 
and whether the magnitude of possessions re- 
mains in the same state, and does not become 
excessive. For the possession of superflui- 
ties is accompanied by the desire of still more 



8 



of the superfluous. After this marmer, there- 
fore, customs ought to be rendered secure. 

With respect to disciplines, however, the 
same legislators and praefects should diligently 
inspect and examine the tribe of sophists, whe- 
ther they teach what is useful to the laws, to 
political dogmas, and to the peculiar economy 
of life. For the doctrines of the sophists inge- 
nerate in the souls of men, no casual but the 
greatest infelicity ; when they dare to make in- 
novation in any thing pertaining either to human 
or divine concerns, contrary to common con- 
ceptions; than which nothing can be more per- 
nicious either with respect to truth, or secu- 
rity, or renown. And in addition to this, also, 
they introduce darkness and confusion into 
the minds of the vulgar. But of this kind are 
all such doctrines as either teach that there is 
no God, or if there is, that he is not so affected 
towards the human race, as to look to it with 
providential attention, but deserts and despises 
it. For doctrines of this kind produce in men 
folly and injustice, to an extent which it is not 
easy to narrate. For every man who is full of 
anarchy, and who has shaken off the fear of 
disobedience [to rulers and the laws], wantonly 
exults, and violates the laws. Hence it is 
necessary to employ political and venerable 



9 

assertions, which are adapted to the disposition 
of the speaker, and which are void of dissimu- 
lation. For thus what is said will exhibit the 
manners of the speaker. From the laws, how- 
ever, security will thus be necessarily intro- 
duced, if the polity is composed and coar- 
ranged from every thing which is according to 
nature, and not from such things as are pre- 
ternatural. For cities derive no advantage 
from a tyranny, and very little from an oligar- 
chy. It is necessary, therefore, that a kingdom 
should be established in the first place; and in 
the second place, an aristocracy. For a king- 
dom, indeed, is a thing imitative of God, and 
which is with difficulty preserved and defended 
by the human soul. For it is rapidly changed 
through luxury and insolence. Hence it is not 
proper to employ it universally, but only so far 
as it may be useful to the polity ; but an aris- 
tocracy should be more abundantly interwoven 
in it, because it consists of many rulers, who 
emulate each other, and who often alternatelv 
govern. It is also entirely necessary that a de- 
mocracy should be introduced. For as a citi- 
zen is a part of the whole polity, it is requisite 
that he should receive a certain reward from it*; 

* Thus, too, Plato in his Laws mingles his polity from a 
democracy, aristocracy, and monarchy. He was, however, 
decidedly of opinion, as is evident from his Politicus, that 



10 

But it is necessary that he should be suffici- 
ently restrained. For the vulgar are audaci- 
ous and precipitate. 

FROM THE TREATISE OF DIOTOGENES ON 
SANCTITY. 

It is necessary that the laws should not be 
enclosed in houses, and by gates, but in the 
manners of the citizens. What, therefore, is 
the principle of every polity? The education of 
youth. For vines will never bear useful fruit, 
unless they are well cultivated; nor will horses 
ever become excellent, if colts are not properly 
trained. For recently produced fruit receives 
a figure especially similar to that which touches 
and is near to it. And men prudently attend to 
the manner in which vines ought to be cut and 
taken care of; but in things pertaining to the 
education of their own species, they conduct 
themselves negligently and rashly; though nei- 
ther vines nor wine govern men, but man and 
the soul of man. And we commit the nurture 
of a plant, indeed, to a man of some worth, and 
think that he who takes care of it, deserves no 
less than two mina; but we commit the edu- 

tbe best form of government is that in which either one 
man, who is a most excellent character, is the supreme ruler, 
or a few excellent men rule conjointly. 



II 

cation of youth to some Illyrian or Thracian, 
who are men of no worth. The first legislators, 
however, as they could not render the middle 
class of mankind stable, adjoined [in their edu- 
cation] dancing and rhythm, which participate 
of motion alone and order; and besides these 
they added sports, some of which exhorted 
them to fellowship, but others to truth and 
mental acuteness. In a similar manner also 
they instituted for those who through intoxica- 
tion or repletion had committed any crime, the 
pipe and harmony, by which they gave an ar- 
rangement to the mind, so that the manners 
being matured and rendered mild, they might 
be capable of being adorned. 

FROM THE TREATISE OF ARCHYTAS ON LAW 
AND JUSTICE. 

I say that every [political] association con- 
sists of a governor and the governed ; and of a 
third thing, viz. the laws. Of laws, however, 
one is animated, viz. a king; but another inani- 
mate, viz. written law. The first law, there- 
fore, is animated # ; and if it is observed, the 

* In the original tkere is only irpo-oQ 2>v o vo^og, which 
is evidently defective; but by adding E/uxpv^og the sense will 
be complete. And in what immediately follows tovtio yap 
o fxfv ficHTtXsve vojxifxoQ which also is defective, Gesner adds 
TTjprjvei after tovtco yap, but he should doubtless have added 

El TtjprjffEi. 



12 

king will be legitimate; the magistrate will be 
consentaneous; the subject will be free; and 
the whole community will be happy. But if 
both the animated and written laws are trans- 
gressed, the king will be a tyrant; the magis- 
trate unfit for his office; the subject a slave; 
and the whole community unhappy. For ac- 
tions form a continued series from governing, 
the being governed, and, in the third place, 
from subjugation. To govern, therefore, is the 
province of that which is more, but to be 
governed, of that which is less excellent, and 
to be subjugated, pertains to both these. For 
that part of the soul which is rational governs, 
the part which is irrational is governed, and 
both are vanquished by the passions. For 
virtue is produced from the apt conjunction 
of both these parts; and she leads the soul 
from pleasures and pains to tranquillity and 
apathy*. 

AND IN ANOTHER PART OF THE SAME WORK. 

It will be beneficial to the community, if law 
is not monarchical, and advantageous [only] to 

* i. e. To a perfect subjugation of the passions to reason, 
and not to a perfect insensibility, as is stupidly supposed by 
many who do not understand the proper meaning of the 
word apathy, as used by the Pythagoreans, Platonists, and 
Stoics. 



13 

a private individual, but if it is generally use- 
ful, and extends to every one. But it is also 
necessary that the law should look to the 
whole region, and to the different places in it. 
For neither is the earth able to receive the same 
fruits [every where] nor the soul of every man 
the same virtue*. 

IN ANOTHER PART ALSO OF THE SAME WORK. 

But it is necessary that the more excellent 
law and the city should be composed of every 
other polity, and should have something of a 
democracy, of an oligarchy, of a kingdom, and 
of an aristocracy ; as is the case in Lacedsemon. 
For the kings there are monarchs; the elders 
form an aristocracy ; the ephori an oligarchy ; 
and the ippagretaef and the young men a de- 
mocracy. It is necessary, however, that law 
should not only be good and beautiful, but that 

* The original is, I conceive, evidently defective in this 
place ; for it is, ovrs yap ya rug clvtos tcapwac, ovre 4 >v X a 
avOpcoircop rav avrav aperav TrapaSsfaardai vvvarai. It ap- 
pears, therefore, to me, that iravra^ov should be added after 
KapiruQ, and that for owe ^vya we should read owe iraaa 

t Among the Lacedaemonians the three men were thus 
denominated, who were chosen by the Ephori to preside 
over the equestrian order. But the ephori were magis- 
trates corresponding to the tribunes of the people among the 
Romans, 



14 

it should also reciprocate in its parts : for thus 
it will be strong and stable. But when I say 
it should reciprocate, I mean that the same 
magistrate should alternately govern and be 
governed, as in Lacedsemon, in which there are 
the most equitable laws. For there the ephori 
are opposed to the kings, the elders to the 
ephori, and the media between these are the 
young men, and the ippagretae ; for these last 
both incline to those rulers that excell in 
power, and are in subjection to others. 

It is necessary that the law should, in the 
first place, establish what pertains to the gods, 
to daemons and parents, and, in short, to what 
is beautiful and honourable. But in the second 
place, it should establish what pertains to 
things that are useful. For it is fit that minor 
concerns should be subsequent to such as are 
greater. Nor should the laws be contained in 
houses and gates, but in the manners of the 
citizens. For neither in Lacedaemon, which 
possesses the most excellent laws, is the city 
governed by a multitude of writings, but rather 
by the manners of the subjects. But it will be 
beneficial to the community, if law is not mo- 
narchical, and advantageous [only] to a private 
individual, but if it is generally useful, and ex- 
tends to every one; and if it refers punishment 
to disgrace and ignominy, and not to the loss of 



15 

property. For by punishing with disgrace, the 
citizens will endeavour in the most decorous and 
useful manner, to avoid the punishment ordained 
by the laws. But if the punishment is pecuniary, 
the citizens will value money immoderately, 
and will conceive it to be the greatest remedy 
of crimes. It will be best, therefore, for the 
whole city to be so arranged that it may not 
be in want of any thing external, either with 
respect to virtue or power, or any other cause. 
For thus the body, a family, and an army will 
be beautifully constituted, when each of these 
has the cause of safety in itself, and does not 
derive it externally. And this, indeed, will be 
the case with the body when it is strong, with 
a family when it is well composed, and with 
an army which neither consists of mercenaries, 
nor is unexercised. For these, when thus con- 
stituted, will be far more excellent than others, 
and will be free indeed, and foreign from every 
thing of a servile nature ; and will not, for the 
purpose of endurance, be in want of many 
things, but of a few, and those easily procured. 
For thus he who is strong will not sink under 
burdens, and he who is thinly clothed will 
vanquish cold; since men are exercised by 
casualties and calamities. Indeed, to the man 
who is temperate, and who has laboured much 



16 

both in body and soul, all meat and drink will 
appear to be agreeable ; and a bed composed 
of leaves will be pleasant ; bat to him who 
has deliberately chosen a luxurious and Syba- 
ritic life, even the apparatus of the great [or Per- 
sian] king would not be sufficiently pleasing. 
Hence it is necessary that the manners and 
pursuits of the citizens should be deeply tinc- 
tured with law : for this will cause them to be 
sufficient to themselves, and will be the means 
of distributing to each of them that which is 
due to him according to his desert. Fpr thus, 
also, the sun, moving in a circle through the 
zodiac, distributes to every thing on the earth 
generation, nutriment, and an appropriate por- 
tion of life ; administering, as if it were equi- 
table legislation, the excellent temperature of 
the seasons. Hence, too, Jupiter is called 
Nomios, or legal; and Nemeios, or the distri- 
butor. He, likewise, who distributes nutriment 
to sheep, is called Nomeus, or a shepherd; and 
the songs of harpers are denominated JSomai. 
For these properly dispose the parts of the 
soul by harmony, rhythms, and measures. 



17 



ON THE MUTATIONS OF POLITIES, FROM THE 
TREATISE OF HIPPODAMUS ON A POLITY. 

Every thing mortal, by a necessity of nature, 
is conversant with mutations; some things, 
indeed, receiving a revolution from a worse to 
a better condition, but others from a better to 
a worse. For things that are generated, are 
increased ; when increased, arrive at their 
acme: after this become old, and at length 
finally perish. And things, indeed, which are 
generated by nature, through the same nature 
terminate in the im manifest; and again from 
the immanifest accede to mortality, through a 
permutation of generation ; and, by a recipro- 
cation of corruption, form a circular retrogres- 
sion. And some things, through human folly, 
from an ebullition of insolence and satiety, 
when both houses and cities have been exalted 
to the summit of human felicity, and been 
exuberantly rich, have perished, together with 
their much applauded possessions. Thus, 
also, it happens that every empire is bounded 
by three times : by one, indeed, and that the 
first, which comprehends in itself acquisition; 
by the second, which comprehends fruition: 
and by the last, which brings with it destruc- 
tion. For empires at their commencement 

c 



18 

being destitute of the goods of fortune, are 
busied in acquisition ; but afterwards becoming 
prosperous, they perish. Such things, there- 
fore, as are under the dominion of the gods, 
being incorruptible, are preserved through the 
whole of time by incorruptible natures; but 
such things as are under the government of 
men, being mortal, receive from mortals a per- 
petually various mutation. For the end, in- 
deed, of satiety and lascivious insolence is 
destruction ; but a strenuous and worthy life 
is the end of poverty and narrow circum- 
stances. Not only poverty, however, but many 
other things bring human life to an end. 



FROM DIOTOGENES IN HIS TREATISE CON- 
CERNING A KINGDOM. 

A king should be one who is most just; and 
he will be most just who pays the greatest 
attention to the laws. For without justice no 
one will be a king; and without law there can 
be no justice. For that which is just is just 
through law, which is the effective cause of 
justice. But a king is either animated law, or 
a legal ruler. And hence it follows that he 
will be most just and most observant of the 
laws. There are, however, three peculiar em- 



19 

ployments of a king; viz. to lead an army, to 
administer justice, and to worship the gods. 
He will, therefore, be able to lead an army 
properly, if he knows how to carry on war in 
a becoming manner. But he will be skilled in 
administering justice, and in governing all his 
subjects, if he has well learned the nature of 
justice and law. And he will worship the 
gods in a pious and holy manner, if he has 
diligently considered the nature and virtue of 
God ; so that a good king must necessarily be 
a good general, judge, and priest. For these 
are things consequent and suitable to the 
transcendency and virtue of a king. For it is 
the province of the pilot to preserve the ship, 
of the charioteer to preserve the chariot, and 
of the physician to save the sick ; but it 
belongs to a king and to a general to save 
those who are in danger in battle. For of that 
of which any one is the leader, he is also the 
provident inspector and artificer. But to be 
conversant with judicial affairs is, indeed, a 
universal thing; but is particularly the proper 
work of a king : who, like a god, is a leader 
and protector in the world. And universally, 
indeed, it is fit that the whole polity should be 
coadapted to one ruler and empire ; but, espe- 
cially, that things which have the relation of 
parts should accord with the same harmony 

c2 



•20 

and supreme domination. Farther still, it is 
the province of a king to oblige and benefit his 
subjects, but this not without justice and law. 
And the third thing which is adapted to the 
dignity of a king is the worship of the gods. 
For it is necessary that what is most excellent 
should be honoured by the most excellent ; 
and that which is the leader and ruler, by that 
which leads and rules. Of things, therefore, 
which are by nature most honourable, God is 
the best ; but of things on the earth, and per- 
taining to men, a king is the most excellent. 
As God also is to the world, so is a king to the 
city [which he governs] ; and as a city is to the 
world, so is a king to God. For a city, in- 
deed, being coadapted from things which are 
many and different, imitates the coarrange- 
ment and harmony of the world ; but a king 
who possesses an innoxious dominion, and 
who is himself animated law, exhibits the form 
of God among men. 



AND IN ANOTHER PART OF THE SAME 
TREATISE. 

Hence it is necessary that a king should 
not be vanquished by pleasure, but that he 
should vanquish it; that he should not be 



21 

similar to, but far excel the multitude; and 
that he should not conceive his proper employ- 
ment to consist in the pursuit of pleasure, but 
rather in the acquisition of probity. At the 
same time also it is fit that he who has occa- 
sion to rule over others should first be able to 
govern his own passions. 

But with respect to the desire of obtaining 
great property, it must be observed, that a king 
ought to be wealthy in order that he may 
benefit his friends, relieve those that are in 
want, and justly punish his enemies. For the 
enjoyment of prosperity in conjunction with 
virtue is most delightful. The same thing 
must be said concerning the transcendency of 
a king. For since he always surpasses others 
in virtue, it is fit to form a judgment of his 
empire with reference to virtue, and not with 
reference to riches, or power, or his military 
strength. For he possesses one of these [viz. 
riches] in common with any casual persons ; 
another [viz. power] in common with irrational 
animals ; and the last in common with tyrants. 
But virtue is alone the peculiarity of good 
men. Hence, whatever king is temperate with 
respect to pleasures, liberal with respect to 
money, and prudent and most skilful in govern- 
ing, he will be in reality a king. The people, 
however, have the same analogy with respect 



22 

to the virtues and the vices, as the parts of the 
human soul. For the desire of accumulating 
more than is fit subsists about the irrational 
part of the soul: for desire is not rational*. 
But ambition and ferocity subsist about the 
irascible part: for this is the fervid and stre- 
nuous part of the soul. And the love of plea- 
sure subsists about the epithymetic part: for 
this is the effeminate and yielding part of the 
soul. But injustice, which is the most perfect 
vice, and is of a composite nature, subsists 
about the whole soul. Hence it is necessary 
that the king should coharmonize like a lyre 
the city that is furnished with good laws, first 
establishing in himself the most just boundary 
and order of law, as knowing that the proper 
arrangement of the people, over whom divinity 

* In the original, a fiev yap irkeoveKTia yivErat irzpi to 
ayovfjievov fXBpoQ rag xpvya^' \oyiica yap a eiriBvpiia. But 
for ayovfjievov, I read a\oyov; and for Xoytica, it is necessary 
to read ov Xoyixa. For the vices, according to the Pytha- 
goreans, subsist about the irrational part of the soul, which 
consists, according to them, as well as according to Plato, 
of anger and desire. Hence Metopus, the Pythagorean, 
says : " Since there are two parts of the soul, the rational 
and the irrational, the latter is divided into the irascible and 
the appetitive. And the rational part, indeed, is that by 
which we judge and contemplate ; but the irrational part is 
that by which we are impelled and desire." See my trans- 
lation of Pythagoric Ethical Fragments, at the end of my 
translation of lamblichus' Life of Pythagoras. 



23 

has given him dominion, ought to be coadapted 
to this boundary. It is also necessary that a 
good king should establish becoming positions 
and habits in the delivery of public orations, 
conducting himself politically, seriously, and 
earnestly, in order that he may neither appear 
to be rough to the multitude, nor may be con- 
temptible; but may be agreeable and easy in 
his manners. He will however obtain these 
things, if in the first place he is venerable in 
his aspect and his discourse, and appears to 
deserve the sovereign authority which he pos- 
sesses. But, in the second place, if he proves 
himself to be benign from his behaviour to 
those whom he may happen to meet, from his 
countenance and his beneficence. And in the 
third place, if he is formidable from his hatred 
of depravity, from the punishment which he 
inflicts on it, from his celerity in inflicting it, 
and, in short, from his skill and exercise in 
the art of government. For venerable gravity, 
being a thing which imitates divinity, is capa- 
ble of causing him to be admired and ho- 
noured by the multitude. Benignity will ren- 
der him pleasing and beloved. And his being 
formidable will cause him to be terrible to 
and unconquered by his enemies, and magna- 
nimous and confident to his friends. 

It is necessary, however, that his gravity 



24 

should have nothing in it of an abject or vulgar 
nature, but that it should be admirable, and 
such as becomes the dignity of empire and a 
sceptre. Nor should he ever contend with 
his inferiors, or his equals, but with those that 
are greater than himself; and he should con- 
ceive, conformably to the magnitude of his 
empire, that those pleasures are the greatest 
which are derived from beautiful and great 
deeds, and not those which arise from sensual 
gratifications; separating himself indeed from 
human passions, and approximating to the 
Gods, not through arrogance, but through mag- 
nanimity and an invincible transcendency of 
virtue. Hence he should invest himself with 
such a gracefulness and majesty in his aspect 
and his reasonings, in the conceptions of his 
mind, in the manners of his soul, and in his 
actions and the motions and gesture of his 
body, that those who survey him may perceive 
that he is adorned and fashioned with modesty 
and temperance, and a decorous disposition. 
For a good king should convert to himself the 
souls of those that behold him, no less than the 
sound of a flute and harmony attract the atten- 
tion of those that hear them. And thus much 
concerning the venerable gravity of a king. 

But I shall now endeavour to speak of his 
benignity. Universally, therefore, every king 



25 

will be benign, if he is just, equitable, and 
beneficent. For justice is a connective and 
collective communion, and is alone that dispo- 
sition of the soul which adapts itself to those 
that are near to us. For as rhythm is to mo- 
tion, and harmony to the voice, so is justice to 
communion ; since it is the common good of 
those that govern, and those that are governed, 
because it coharmonizes political society. But 
equity and benignity are certain assessors of 
justice; the former indeed softening the se- 
verity of punishment ; but the latter extending 
pardon to less guilty offenders. It is neces- 
sary, however, that a good king should give 
assistance to those that are in want of it, and 
be beneficent. But his assistance should be 
given not in one way only, but in every possible 
way. And it is requisite to be beneficent, not 
looking to the magnitude of honour, but to the 
manner and deliberate choice of him by whom 
honour is conferred. It is likewise necessary 
that a worthy king should so conduct himself 
towards all men as to avoid being troublesome 
to them, but especially towards men of an in- 
ferior rank and of a slender fortune : for these, 
like diseased bodies, can endure nothing of a 
troublesome nature. Good kings, indeed, have 
dispositions similar to those of the Gods, and 
which especially resemble those of Jupiter, the 



26 

ruler of all things. For he is venerable and 
honourable, through transcendency and mag- 
nitude of virtue. He is benign, because he is 
beneficent, and the giver of good ; and hence he 
is said by the Ionic poet [Homer] to be the 
father of men and Gods. He is also terrible 
and transcendent, because he punishes the 
unjust, and reigns and rules over all things. 
But he carries thunder in his hand, as a symbol 
of his formidable excellence. From all these 
particulars, therefore, it is requisite to remem- 
ber that a kingdom is a God-resembling thing. 



FROM THE TREATISE OF STHENIDAS THE 
LOCRIAN, ON A KINGDOM. 

It is requisite that a king should be a wise 
man: for thus he will be honoured analo- 
gously to the first God, of whom also he will 
be an imitator. For this god is by nature the 
first king and potentate ; but a king is so by 
birth and imitation. And the former rules in 
the universe, and in the whole of things ; but 
the latter in the earth. The former also 
governs all things eternally, and has a never- 
failing life, possessing wisdom in himself; but 
the latter acquires science through time. But 
a king will imitate the first God in the most 



27 

excellent manner, if he acquires magnanimity, 
gravity, and the want of but few things ; exhi- 
biting to his subjects a paternal disposition. 
For on this account especially, the first God is 
conceived to be the father both of Gods and 
men, because he is mild to every thing which 
is in subjection to him, and never ceases to 
govern with providential regard. Nor is he 
alone satisfied with being the maker of all 
things, but he is the nourisher, the preceptor 
of every thing beautiful, and the legislator to 
all things equally. Such also ought the king 
to be who rules over men on the earth. Nothing 
however is beautiful which is deprived of a 
king and a ruler. But it is not possible for a 
king or a ruler [properly so called] to exist 
without wisdom and science. He, therefore, 
who is a wise man and a king, will be an imi- 
tator, and a legitimate minister of God. 



FROM THE TREATISE OF ECPHANTUS, THE 
CROTONIAN, ON A KINGDOM. 

That the nature of every animal is adapted 
to the world, and to the things contained in the 
world, appears to me to be evident from many 
arguments. For every animal thus conspiring 
[into union and consent], and having such a 



28 

colligation of its parts, it follows a series which 
is most excellent, and at the same time neces- 
sary, through the attractive flux of the uni- 
verse about it, which is effective of the general 
ornament of the world, and the peculiar per- 
manency of every thing which it contains. 
Hence it is called kog^loq /cosmos, and is the 
most perfect of all animals. But in its parts, 
which are many, and naturally different, a 
certain animal excels ; both from its native 
alliance to the world # , and from participating 
of divinity in a greater degree. [And in the 
nature, indeed, of the God who is eternal, the 
stars called planets are comprehended, form- 
ing the first and the greatest series f ]. But in 
the sublunary region, where bodies move in a 
right line, the nature of demons has its sub- 
sistence. And in the earth, and with us, the 
most excellent nature is man; but the most 
divine is a king, who surpasses other men in 
the common nature : in his tabernacle, indeed, 
[i. e. in his body], resembling other men, as 
being generated from the same matter, but 
fashioned from the best of artificers, who fa- 

* I here read, with Victorius, kclt otKetorara eyyevrj* for 

KCll OIKUOTCLTOV EV JBVOLV. 

t This sentence within the brackets is not to be found in 
Slobaeus. 



29 

bricated him, by using himself as the arche- 
type. Hence, in a certain respect, a king is 
one and alone ; being the production of the 
supernal king, with whom he is always fami- 
liar: but being beheld by his subjects in his 
kingdom as in a splendid light. For a king- 
dom is judged and proved to resemble the 
eagle, the most excellent of winged animals, 
which looks undazzled at the sun. And a 
kingdom is, indeed, analogous to the sun, 
because it is divine ; and through excess of 
splendour cannot be seen without difficulty, 
except by genuine eyes. For the numerous 
splendours which surround it, and the dark 
vertigos which it produces in those who sur- 
vey it, as if they had ascended into a foreign 
altitude, evinces that their eyes are spurious. 
But those who can fitly arrive thither, on ac- 
count of their familiarity with, and alliance to 
it, are able to use it properly. A kingdom, 
therefore, is a thing pure, genuine, uncor- 
rupted, and through transcendency, most di- 
vine; and difficult to be acceded to by man. 
Hence it is necessary that he who is established 
in it should be naturally most pure and pel- 
lucid [in his soul], in order that he may not 
obscure by his stains that which is most splen- 
did ; as some persons defile the most sacred 
places, and the impure pollute those they 



30 

may happen to meet. Bat it is requisite that 
a king, who associates with men, should par- 
ticipate of an undefiled nature, and should 
know how much more divine both himself and 
his qualifications are than other things ; and 
from the exemplars to which he assimilates 
himself, he should use both himself and his 
subjects in the best manner. And to other 
men, indeed, if they are delinquents, the most 
holy purification is for them to be assimilated 
to their rulers, whether law or a king adminis- 
ters their affairs. But kings who cannot find 
any thing on the earth to imitate more excel- 
lent than their own nature, ought not to 
wander any farther in search of a paradigm, 
but should immediately become benefited by 
imitating God. For neither should any one 
search for the world, since he exists in, and is 
a part of it; nor should he who governs others 
be ignorant of him by whom he is governed. 
This, however, is a most abundant ornament, 
that nothing [in the universe] can be found 
without a ruler. 

The manners of a king also ought to be the 
preceptors of his government. For thus the 
beauty of it will immediately shine forth, since 
he who imitates God through virtue will be 
dear to him whom he imitates; and much 
more will he be dear to his subjects. For no 



31 

one who is beloved by divinity will be hated 
by men ; since neither do the stars, nor the 
whole world hate God. For if they hated 
their ruler and leader, they would never be 
obedient to him. But because he governs 
properly, mundane affairs are well governed. 
I therefore, indeed, apprehend that the terrene 
king ought not to be deficient in any one of the 
virtues which pertain to the celestial king. 
But as the former is a certain foreign and ex- 
ternal thing, in consequence of proceeding to 
men from the heavens ; so, likewise, his virtues 
may be conceived to be the works of God, and 
to accede to him through divinity. And if 
you consider the thing from the beginning, you 
will find what I say to be true. For the ter- 
restrial king obtains possession of the race of 
men by a communion, which is the first and 
the most necessary of all things. And this 
race is also the possession of him who governs 
every thing in the universe. For it is impos- 
sible that any thing can subsist without friend- 
ship and communion; the truth of which may 
be easily seen, if the accustomed communion 
which exists among citizens is supposed to be 
destroyed ; since this is much inferior to a 
divine and royal nature. For natures of this 
kind are not oppressed by any such indigence; 
but, conformably to intellect, they supply the 



32 

wants of others, and afford them assistance in 
common. For they are perfect in virtue. But 
the friendship which is in a city, and which 
possesses a certain common end, imitates the 
concord of the universe. But without the 
arrangement of magistrates no city can be 
inhabited. In order, however, to effect this 
arrangement, and to preserve the city, laws 
are necessary, and a certain political domina- 
tion, and also a governor and the governed. 
But the consequence of these things is, the 
general good, a certain concinnity, and the 
consent of the multitude in conjunction with 
concordant persuasion. He, likewise, who 
governs according to virtue, is called a king, 
and is so [in reality]; since he possesses the 
same friendship and communion with his sub- 
jects as divinity possesses with the world, and 
the natures which it contains. All benevo- 
lence, however, ought to be exerted ; in the 
first place, indeed, by the king towards his 
subjects; but in the second place, by the sub- 
jects towards the king: and this benevolence 
should be such as that of a parent towards his 
child, of a shepherd towards his flock, and of 
law towards him who uses it. 

For there is one virtue pertaining to the 
government, and to the life of men. But no 
one should through indigence solicit the as- 



m 

sistance of others, when he is able to supply 
himself with what nature requires. For though 
there is a general communion [in the city], yet 
every one should so live as to be sufficient 
to himself; since he who is sufficient to him- 
self does not appear to require the aid of any 
other person in his passage through life. If, 
therefore, it is necessary to lead an active life, 
it is evideut that a king, though he should also 
assume other things, will, nevertheless, be 
sufficient to himself. For he will have friends 
through his own virtue ; and in using these, he 
will not use them by any other virtue than that 
by which he regulates his own life. For it is 
necessary that he should follow a virtue of 
this kind, since he cannot procure any thing 
which is more excellent. And God, indeed, 
not having either ministers or servants # , nor 
employing any mandate, and neither crowning 
nor proclaiming those that are obedient to him, 
or disgracing those that are disobedient, thus 
administers so great an empire. But as it 
appears to me exhibiting himself to be most 



* i. e. God is not in want of ministers or servants to as- 
sist him in the government of the universe : for he produces 
and provides for all things at once by his own immediate 
energy. But the cooperation of subordinate divine powers 
with him is necessary to the proper participation of him by 
the different beings which the universe contains. 

D 



34 

worthy of imitation, he inserts in all things a 
vehement desire of participating his nature. 
He is, however, good ; and the communication 
of goodness, and this, with the greatest faci- 
lity, is his only work. But those who imi- 
tate him # , accomplish every thing in a better 
manner through this imitation. And the imi- 
tation of him is to every thing the source of 
sufficiency. For there is not one virtue which 
makes things to be acceptable to God, and 
another which imitates him; [but both these 
are effected by one and the same virtue]. And 
is not our terrestrial kins in a similar manner 
sufficient to himself? For assimilating himself 
to one, and that the most excellent nature, he 
will beneficently endeavour to render all whom 
he governs similar to himself. But such as 
offer violence to, and compel their subjects, 
entirely f destroy in every individual of the 
community a promptitude to imitate [that which 
is most excellent]. For without benevolence, 
it is impossible there can be assimilation ; since 
benevolence especially destroys every thing of 
a terrific nature. It is much to be wished, 
indeed, that human nature was not in want 

* For 01 fii/LiEv/bLEvoi tiov avruv in this place, I read ot 

lllflEVjABVOl TOP CIVTOV. 

t Instead of smote here, I read ttcivtote. 



35 

of persuasion : for persuasion is the relic of 
human depravity, of which this temporary 
animal [man] is not destitute. Persuasion, 
indeed, is a thing proximate to necessity ; 
since this first of itself performs those things 
which fly from necessity. Such beings, how- 
ever, as spontaneously use what is beautiful 
and good, are not influenced by the reverence 
of persuasion ; for neither are they influenced 
by the fear of necessity. 

Again, a king alone is capable of effecting 
this good in human nature, that through the 
imitation of what is more excellent, man may 
pursue what is fit and decorous ; and that 
those who are corrupted as if by intoxication, 
and through a bad education have fallen into 
an oblivion of that which is more excellent, 
may through his eloquence be corroborated, 
may have their diseased minds healed, and the 
oblivion which dwells in them through de- 
pravity being expelled, may have memory for 
an intimate associate, from which persuasion 
is produced. For this, though it originates 
from depraved seeds, yet is the source of a 
certain good to the inhabitants of the terres- 
trial region, in which language supplies what 
is deficient (through the imbecility of our na- 
ture), in our converse with each other. 

d2 



36 



AND IN ANOTHER PART OF THE SAME WORK. 

He who has a sacred and divine conception of 
things, will be in reality a king*. For being 
persuaded by this, he will be the cause of all 
good, but of no evil. And, moreover, that he 
will be just, being fitted for society, is evident 
to every one. For communion or association 
consists in equality, and in the distribution of 
it. And justice indeed precedes, but commu- 
nion participates. For it is impossible for a 
man to be unjust, and yet distribute equality ; 
or that he should distribute equality, and yet 
not be adapted to association. But how is it 
possible that he who is sufficient to himself 
should not be continent? For sumptuousness 
is the mother of incontinence, and incontinence 
of wanton insolence, from which so many 
human evils are derived. But self-sufficiency 
is not vanquished by sumptuousness, nor by 
any thing which proceeds from it; but being 
itself a certain principle, it leads all things, but 
is not led by anything. And to govern, in- 
deed, is the province of God, and also of a 
king (on which account, likewise, he is de- 

* Conformably to this, Plato also in the Politicus says : 
"It is requisite to call him royal who possesses the royal 
science, whether he governs or not." 



37 

nominated sufficient to himself); but it pertains 
to both, not to be governed by any one. It is, 
however, evident, that these things cannot be 
effected without prudence. And it is mani- 
fest that God is the intellectual prudence of 
the world. For the world is connectedly con- 
tained by gracefulness, and a fit order of things, 
which cannot take place without intellect. 
Nor is it possible for a king without prudence 
to possess these virtues ; I mean justice, con- 
tinence, communion, and such other virtues 
as are the sisters of these. 



FROM ARCHYTAS. 

The unwritten laws of the gods were promul- 
gated against depraved manners, inflicting a 
severe destiny and penalty on the disobedient; 
and these unwritten laws are the fathers and 
leaders of those that are written, and of the 
dogmas established by men. 



FROM THE TREATISE OF DIOTOGENES ON 
SANCTITY. 

It is proper to invoke God in the beginning 
both of supper and dinner, not because he is 
in want of any thing of this kind, but in order 



38 

that the soul may be adorned by the recollec- 
tion of Divinity. For since we proceed from 
him, and participate of a divine nature, it is^re- 
quisite that we should honour him. And since 
God also is just, it is fit that we should act 
justly in all things. In the next place, there 
are four causes which terminate all things, and 
bring them to an end, viz. nature, law, art, and 
fortune. And nature, indeed, is universally 
the principle of all things. But of those things 
which from manners lead to political concord, 
law is the inspective guardian and fabricator. 
Of things which obtain their consummation 
through human prudence, art is justly said to 
be the mother and leader. And of those things 
which, casually and accidentally, similarly be- 
fall the worthy and the depraved, we assert 
fortune to be the cause. For fortune does not 
produce any thing in measure and bound, in 
an orderly and prudent manner. 



THE PREFACE OF CHARONDAS, THE CATANEAN, 
TO HIS TREATISE OF LAWS. 

It is requisite that those who deliberate 
about, and perform any thing, should begin 
from the Gods: for it is best, as the proverb 
says, for God to be the cause of all our delibe- 



39 

rations and works. And, farther still, it is 
requisite to abstain from base actions, and 
especially on account of consulting with God. 
For there is no communication between God 
and him who is unjust. Every one, also, 
should give assistance to himself, and should 
incite himself to the undertaking and perform- 
ance of such things as are conformable to his 
desert; since for a man to extend himself simi- 
larly to small and great undertakings appears 
to be too sordid and illiberal. Hence, you 
should be very careful to avoid falling vehe- 
mently into things of an extended nature, and 
of great consequence. But, in every undertak- 
ing, you should measure your own desert and 
power, in order that you may obtain honour 
and veneration. 

Let no assistance be afforded to a man or 
woman who has been condemned by the city, 
nor let any one associate with such a person, 
or if he does, let him be disgraced, as being 
similar to him or her with whom he associates. 
But it is proper to love men who, from the 
previous decision of the city, are good, and to 
associate with them ; and by imitating and ac- 
quiring in reality their virtue and probity, to be 
thus initiated in the greatest and most perfect 
of the mysteries. For no man is perfect with- 
out virtue. And assistance should be given to 



40 

an injured citizen, whether he is in his own, or 
in a foreign country. But let every stranger 
who was venerated in his own country, and 
conformably to the proper laws of that coun- 
try, be received and dismissed auspiciously 
and familiarly, calling to mind hospitable Ju- 
piter, as a God who is established by all nations 
in common, and who is the inspective guardian 
of hospitality and inhospitality. 

Let more elderly men also preside over such 
as are younger, so that the latter may be 
ashamed of and deterred from vice, through 
reverence and fear of the former. For in cities 
in which more elderly men are shameless, the 
children and grandchildren of these are also 
destitute of shame. But wanton insolence and 
injustice are the attendants of shamelessness 
and impudence. And destruction follows 
these. Let, however, no one be impudent*, 
but let every one be modest and temperate; 
because he will thus have the Gods propitious 
to him, and will procure for himself salvation. 
For no vicious man is dear to divinity. Let 
every one likewise honour probity and truth, 
and hate what is base and false. For these 
are the indications of virtue and vice. Hence 

* Plato says somewhere (I think in his Laws), that a 
greater evil than impudence cannot befall either cities or 
individuals. 



41 

it is requisite to accustom children from their 
youth [to worthy manners], by punishing those 
that are lovers of falsehood, but being delighted 
with those that are lovers of truth, in order 
that in each that which is most beautiful, and 
most prolific of virtue, may be implanted. 
Each of the citizens, likewise, should be more 
anxious to pretend to be temperate than to 
pretend to be wise: for the pretence of wisdom 
is a great indication of an ignorance of probity, 
and is also a sign of pusillanimity. But let the 
pretence of temperance be considered as a true 
claim to it. For no one should feign with his 
tongue, that he performs beautiful deeds, when 
at the same time he is both destitute of wor- 
thy conduct and good intentions. 

It is likewise requisite to preserve benevo- 
lence towards rulers, being obedient to and 
venerating them as if they were parents. For 
he who does not conceive that this is proper 
will suffer the punishment of bad counsel from 
the daemons who are the inspective guardians 
of the seat of empire. For the rulers are the 
guardians of the city, and of the safety of the 
citizens. 

But it is also necessary that governors should 
preside justly over those that are governed, in 
the same manner as over their own children, in 



42 

passing sentence on others, laying asleep hatred, 
friendship, and anger. 

Let those likewise be praised and celebrated 
who, being themselves in affluence, have as- 
sisted the indigent, and let them be considered 
as the saviours of the children and defenders 
of their country. And let the wants of those 
be relieved who are poor through fortune, and 
not through an indolent and intemperate life. 
For fortune is common to all men, but an in- 
dolent and intemperate life is peculiar to bad 
men. 

Let it also be considered as a worthy deed, 
to point out any one who has acted unjustly, 
in order that the polity may be saved, which 
has many guardians of its decorous arrange- 
ment. But let the indicator of the unjust 
action be considered as a pious man, though 
his information should be respecting his most 
familiar acquaintance. For nothing is more 
familiar and allied to a man than his country. 
Let, however, the indication be made, not of 
things done through involuntary ignorance, but 
ol such crimes as have been committed from a 
previous knowledge [of their enormity.] And 
if he who is detected should be hostile to him 
by whom he is detected, let him be hated by 
all men, in order that he may suffer the punish- 



43 

ment of ingratitude, through which he deprives 
himself of being cured of the greatest of dis- 
eases injustice. 

Farther still, let a contempt of the Gods be 
considered as the greatest of iniquities, and 
also injuring parents voluntarily, the neglect- 
ing rulers and laws, and voluntarily dishonour- 
ing justice. But let him be considered as a 
most just and holy citizen who honours these 
things, and indicates to the citizens and rulers 
those that despise them. 

Let it be esteemed to be more venerable for 
a man to die for his country than, through a 
desire of life, to desert it, together with probity. 
For it is better to die well than to live basely 
and disgracefully. 

It is likewise requisite to honour each of the 
dead, not with tears nor with lamentations, but 
with good remembrance, and with an oblation 
of annual fruits. For when we grieve immo- 
derately for those that are dead, we are un- 
grateful to the terrestrial daemons. 

Let no one curse him by whom he has been 
injured. For praise is more divine than defa- 
mation. 

Let him be thought to be a better citizen 
who is superior to anger, than him who is an 
offender through it. 

Let not him be praised but disgraced, who, 



44 

in the sumptuousness of his expence, surpasses 
temples and palaces. For let nothing private 
be more magnificent and venerable than things 
of a public nature. 

Let him who is a slave to wealth and money 
be despised, as one who is pusillanimous and 
illiberal, and is astonished by sumptuous pos- 
sessions, and let him be considered as one who 
leads a tragical life, and whose soul is vile. 
For he who is magnanimous foresees with him- 
self all human concerns, and is not disturbed 
by any thing of this kind [whether prosperous 
or adverse], when it accedes. 

Let no one speak obscenely, in order that 
he may not in his thoughts approach to base 
deeds, and that he may not fill his soul with 
impudence and defilement. For we call things 
which are decorous and lovely, by their proper 
names, and by those appellations which are 
established by law. But we abstain from nam- 
ing things to which we are hostile, on account 
of their baseness. Let it also be considered as 
base, to speak of a base thing. 

Let every one dearly love his lawful wife, 
and beget children from her. But let no one 
emit the seed of his children # into any other 
person; nor let him illegally consume that 

* i. e. The seed which pertains to the propagation of his 
children. 



45 

which is honourable both by nature and law, 
and act with wanton insolence. For nature 
produced the seed, for the sake of procreating 
children, and not for the sake of last. 

But it is requisite that a wife should be 
chaste, and should not admit the impious con- 
nection with other men, as by so doing she will 
subject herself to the vengeance of the daemons, 
whose office it is to expel those to whom they 
are hostile from their houses, and to produce 
hatred. 

Let not him be praised who gives a stepmo- 
ther to his children*, but disgraced, as being 
the cause of domestic dissension. 

And as it is proper to observe these man- 
dates, let him who transgresses them be ob- 
noxious to political execration. 

The law also orders that these proems should 
be known by all the citizens, and should be 
read in festivals after the pseansf by him who 
is appointed for this purpose by the master of 
the feast, in order that the precepts may be 
inserted in the minds of all that hear them. 

* i. e. To his children while they live in his house under 
his protection and are unmarried; and who are in danger 
through having a stepmother of losing that property which 
ought to be theirs on the death of their father. 

t Paean is a song of rejoicing, which was sung at festivals 
and on other occasions, in honour of Apollo, for having slain 
the serpent Python. 



46 



THE PREFACE OF ZALEUCUS, THE LOCRIAN, TO 
HIS LAWS. 

It is requisite that all those who inhabit a 
city and country should in the first place be 
firmly persuaded that there are Gods, in con- 
sequence of directing their attention to the 
heavens and the world, and the orderly distri- 
bution of the natures which they contain. For 
these are not the productions either of fortune 
or of men. It is also requisite to reverence 
and honour these, as the causes to us of every 
reasonable good. It is necessary, therefore, 
that every one should so prepare his soul that 
it may be free from every vice ; since God is 
not honoured by a bad man, nor is he to be 
worshiped sumptuously, nor with tragical ex- 
pence, like some depraved man ; but by virtue, 
and the deliberate choice of beautiful and just 
deeds. Hence it is necessary that every one 
should be good to the utmost of his power, 
both in his actions and his deliberate choice, if 
he wishes to be dear to divinity, and should 
not fear the loss of money more than the loss 
of renown. And it is also requisite to call 
him a better citizen who would rather sustain 
a loss of property than of probity and justice. 
Let, however, such things as the following 



47 

be denounced by us against those who are not 
easily impelled to do what we have above en- 
joined, but whose soul is easily excited to in- 
justice. All citizens of this kind, both male 
and female, and also those who live in the 
same house with them, should remember that 
there are Gods who punish the unjust, and 
should place before their eyes that time in 
which to every one there will be a final libera- 
tion from life. For all such will repent when 
they are about to die, from a remembrance of 
their unjust deeds, and from their being im- 
pelled to wish that all things had been done by 
them justly. Hence it is necessary that every 
one, in every action, should always associate 
to himself this time, as if it were present: for 
thus he will especially pay attention to probity 
and justice. But if an evil daemon is present 
with any one, converting him to injustice, such 
a one should abide in temples, at altars, and in 
sacred groves, flying from injustice as a most 
impious and noxious mistress, and supplicating 
the Gods to cooperate with him in turning from 
it. He should also accede to those men who 
are renowned for their probity, in order to 
hear them discourse about a blessed life, and 
the punishment of bad men, that he may be 
deterred from unjust deeds; but he should 
only dread avenging daemons. Those, like- 



48 

wise, that dwell in the city, should honour all 
the Gods according to the legal rites of the 
country, which are to be considered as the 
most beautiful of all others. All the citizens, 
too, should obey the laws, reverence the rulers, 
and rise to them, and comply with their man- 
dates. For after the Gods, daemons, and heroes, 
proximate honours are paid by men who are 
intelligent, and wish to be saved, to parents, 
the laws, and the rulers. Let, however, no 
one make the city to be dearer to him than his 
country, since he will thus excite the indigna- 
tion of the Gods of the country: for such con- 
duct is the beginning of treachery. And far- 
ther still, for a man to be deprived of his own 
country, and to live in a foreign land, is a thing 
of a more afflictive nature, and more difficult 
to be borne [than most other misfortunes] : for 
nothing is more allied to us than our country. 
Nor let any one think that a citizen, whom the 
laws have permitted to partake of the polity, 
should be considered by him as an implacable 
enemy ; since a man who is capable of thus 
thinking can neither govern nor judge in a 
proper manner, in consequence of his anger 
predominating over his reason. Let no one, 
likewise, speak ill either of the city in common, 
or of a citizen privately. But let the guardians 
of the laws keep a watchful eye over offenders, 



49 

in the first place by admonishing them; and in 
the next place, if they are not restrained by 
this from acting ill, let them be careful that 
they are punished. And with respect to the 
established laws, if some one of them should 
appear not to be well ordained, let it be changed 
into one that is better. But where all of them 
remain, let them be [universally] obeyed; as it 
is neither beautiful, nor beneficial, for the esta- 
blished laws to be vanquished by men; though 
it is both profitable and beautiful, to be re- 
strained, as if vanquished, by a more excellent 
law. It is requisite, however, to punish those 
who transgress these, as machinating for the 
city the principle of the greatest evils anarchy. 
But the magistrates should neither be arrogant, 
nor judge insultingly, nor in passing sentence 
be mindful either of friendship or hatred, but 
of what is just. For thus they will decide 
most justly, and will be worthy of the magis- 
tracy. It is fit, therefore, that slaves should do 
what is just through fear, but those that are 
free, through shame, and for the sake of the 
beautiful in conduct. Hence it is requisite 
that the governors should be men of this kind, 
in order that they may be reverenced by those 
whom they govern. But if any one wishes to 
change some one of the established laws, or 
to introduce another law, let him, with a halter 

E 



50 

about his neck, speak of the subject of his 
wishes to the people. And if it shall appear 
from the suffrages, that the law already esta- 
blished should be dissolved, or that a new law 
should be introduced, let him not be punished. 
But if it should be thought that the preexisting 
law is better, or that the law which is intended 
to be introduced is unjust, let him who wishes 
to change an old, or to introduce a new law, 
be executed by the halter. 



FROM THE TREATISE OF CALLICRATIDAS ON 
THE FELICITY OF FAMILIES. 

The universe must be considered as a system 
of kindred communion or association. But 
every system consists of certain dissimilar con- 
traries, and is coarranged with reference to 
one certain thing, which is the most excellent, 
and also with a view to a general benefit. For 
that which is denominated a choir, is a system 
of musical communion, and is referred to one 
certain common thing, a concert of voices. 
Farther still, the system of body about a ship 
consists of certain dissimilar and contrary 
things, and is coarranged with reference to 
one thing which is best, viz. the pilot, and also 
with a view to a common benefit, a prosperous 



51 

navigation. Thus, too, a family, being a sys~ 
teni of kindred communion, consists of certain 
dissimilars, which are its proper parts ; and is 
coarranged with a view to one thing which is 
best, viz. the father of the family; and is re- 
ferred to a common advantage, unanimity. 
And, in short, every family, in the same man- 
ner as a psaltery*, requires these three things, 
apparatus, coadaptation, and a certain con- 
trectation, and musical use. Apparatus, in- 
deed, being the composition of all its parts, 
from which the whole, and all the system of 
kindred communion derives its completion. 
But of the parts of a family there are two first 
and greatest divisions ; viz. man and posses- 
sions, the latter of which is the thing governed, 
and affords utility. Thus, also, the first and 
greatest parts of an animal are soul and body ; 
and soul, indeed, is that which governs and 
uses, but the body is that which is governed, 
and imparts utility. And possessions, indeed, 
are the adscititious instruments of human life ; 
but the body is the connascent and allied in- 
strument of the soul. Of those persons, how- 
ever, that give completion to a family, some are 
consanguineous, but others have an affinity to 
the family. And those that are kindred are 

* A kind of harp beaten with sticks. 
e 2 



52 

generated from the same blood, or have the 
same origin from those who first disseminated 
the race. But those that have an affinity have 
an adscititious alliance, as commencing from the 
communion of wedlock. And these are either 
fathers or brothers, or maternal or paternal 
grandfathers, or some other of those relatives 
that are produced by marriage. But if the 
good arising from friendship is also to be re- 
ferred to a family (for thus it will become 
greater and more magnificent, not only through 
an abundance of wealth and many relations, 
but also through numerous friends) ; in this 
case it is evident, that the family will thus be- 
come more ample, and that the social species 
of friendship is to be enumerated among things 
which are requisite to the completion of a 
family. But of possessions some are neces- 
sary, and others are of a liberal nature. And 
the necessary, indeed, are those which are sub- 
servient to the wants of life; and the liberal 
are such as lead a man to an elegant and well 
arranged mode of living, so that he may not be 
in want of other things. Such things, however, 
as exceed what is requisite to a liberal and ele- 
gant mode of life, are, at the beginning, the roots 
to men of wanton insolence, and destruction. 
For those that have great possessions are neces- 
sarily at first inflated with pride, and when thus 



53 

inflated become arrogant ; and, being arrogant, 
they also become fastidious, avid conceive that 
their kindred, and those of the same nation and 
tribe with themselves, neither resemble, nor are 
equal to them. JBut when they are fastidious, 
they also become ivantonly insolent. And the 
extremity and end of all ivanton insolence is de- 
struction. When, therefore, in a family and city 
there is a superfluity of possessions, it is ne- 
cessary that the legislator should cut off, and, as 
it were, amputate the superfluities, in the same 
manner as a good husbandman lops the too 
luxuriant leaves of trees. But of the kindred 
and domestic part of man there is a triple spe- 
cies. For there is one species which governs, 
another which is governed, and another which 
gives assistance to a family and relatives. And 
the husband, indeed, governs, but the wife is 
governed, and the offspring of both these is an 
auxiliary. 



AND IN ANOTHER PART OF THE SAME WORK. 

With respect also to practical and rational 
domination, one kind is despotic, another is of 
a guardian nature, and another is political. 
And the despotic, indeed, is that which governs 
with a view to the advantage of the governor, 



54 

and not of the governed. For after this man- 
ner a master rules over his slaves, and a tyrant 
over his subjects. But the guardian domina- 
tion subsists for the sake of the governed, and 
not for the sake of those that govern. And 
with this kind of power the anointers rule over 
the athletse, physicians over the sick, and pre- 
ceptors over their pupils. For their labours 
are not directed to their own advantage, but to 
the benefit of those whom they govern ; those 
of the physician being undertaken for the sake 
of the sick, the anointers for the sake of exer- 
cising the body, and those of the erudite for 
the sake of the inerudite. But the political 
domination has for its end the common benefit 
both of the governors and the governed. For 
according to this domination, in human affairs, 
both a family and a city are coharmonized ; but 
in things of a divine nature the world is aptly 
composed. A family, however, and a city are 
an imitation according to analogy of the go- 
vernment of the world. For divinity is the 
principle of nature, and his attention is neither 
directed to his own advantage, nor to private, 
but. to public good. And on this account, the 
world is called /coa^oc, from the orderly dispo- 
sition of all things which are coarranged with 
reference to one thing which is most excellent, 



5o 

and this is God, who is, according to concep- 
tion, an intellectual # animal, incorruptible, and 
the principle and cause of the orderly disposi- 
tion of wholes. Since, therefore, the husband 
rules over the wife, he either rules with a des- 
potic, or with a guardian, or, in the last place, 
with a political power. But he does not rule 
over her with a despotic power: for he is dili- 
gently attentive to her welfare. Nor is his 
government of her entirely of a guardian na- 
ture : for this is itself a part of the communion 
[between man and wife]. It remains, there- 
fore, that he rules over her with a political 
power, according to which both the governor 
and the thing governed establish [as their end] 
the common advantage. Hence, also, wedlock 
is established with a view to the communion of 
life. Those husbands, therefore, that govern 
their wives despotically, are hated by them; 
but those that govern them with a guardian 
authority are despised by them. For they 
appear to be, as it were, appendages and flat- 

* In the original ovpaviov %aov a celestial animal; but as 
Callicratidas is here speaking of the Demiurgus, or artificer 
of the universe, who is an intellectual god, for ovpaviov I 
read voepov. For the Demiurgus is the maker, and not one 
of the celestial gods. But he is called an animal, as being 
the cause of life to all things. Thus, too, Aristotle, in the 
12th book of his Metaphysics, says, " that God is an animal 
eternal and most excellent." 



m 

terers of their wives. But those that govern 
them politically are both admired and beloved. 
And both these will be effected, if he who 
governs exercises his power so that it may be 
mingled with pleasure and veneration ; plea- 
sure indeed being produced by his fondness, 
but veneration from his doing nothing of a vile 
or abject nature. 



AND AGAIN, IN ANOTHER PART OF THE SAME 
WORK. 

He who wishes to marry ought to take for a 
wife one whose fortune is conformable to his 
own, in order that he may not contract nuptials 
either above or beneath his condition, but ana- 
logous to the property which he possesses. 
For those who marry a woman above their 
condition have to contend for the mastership; 
for the wife, surpassing her husband in wealth 
and lineage, wishes to rule over him; but he 
considers it to be unworthy of him, and preter- 
natural to submit to his wife. But those who 
marry a woman beneath their condition sub- 
vert the dignity and splendour of their family. 
It is necessary, however, on this occasion to 
imitate the musician, who, having learned the 
proper tone of his voice, endeavours to bring it 
to such a medium that it mav be rendered suf- 



57 

ficiently sharp and flat, and may be neither 
broken, nor lose its intenseness. Thus, there- 
fore, it is necessary that wedlock should be 
coadapted to the peculiar tone of the soul, so 
that the husband and wife may not only accord 
with each other in prosperous, but also in ad- 
verse fortune. It is requisite, therefore, that 
the husband should be the regulator, master, 
and preceptor of his wife. The regulator, in- 
deed, in paying diligent attention to her affairs; 
but the master, in governing and exercising 
authority over her; and the preceptor in teach- 
ing her such things as it is fit for her to know. 
This, however, will be especially effected by 
him who, directing his attention to worthy 
parents, marries from their family a virgin in 
the flower of her youth. For such virgins are 
easily fashioned, and are docile ; and are also 
naturally well disposed to be instructed by, 
and to fear and love their husbands. 



FROM THE TREATISE OF PERICTYONE* ON THE 
DUTIES OF A WOMAN. 

It is necessary that a woman should sufficiently 
possess a harmony full of prudence and tem- 
perance. For it is requisite that her soul 

* This Perictyone is different from her who was the mo- 
ther of Plato. 



58 

should be vehemently inclined to the acquisi- 
tion of virtue ; so that she may be just, brave, 
and prudent, and may be adorned with fruga- 
lity, and hate vainglory. For, from the posses- 
sion of these virtues, she will act worthily when 
she becomes a wife, towards herself, her hus- 
band, her children, and her family. Frequently, 
also, such a woman will act beautifully towards 
cities, if she happens to rule over cities or na- 
tions, as we see is [sometimes] the case in a 
kingdom. If, therefore, she subdues desire 
and anger, a divine harmony will be produced. 
Hence she will not be pursued by illegal loves, 
but she will love her husband, her children, 
and all her family. For such women as are 
fond of being connected with other men besides 
their husbands, become hostile to the whole of 
their families, both to those branches of it that 
are free, and those that are slaves. They also 
machinate stratagems against their husbands, 
and falsely represent them as the calumniators 
of all their acquaintance, in order that they 
alone may appear to be exceedingly benevo- 
lent; and they govern their families in such a 
way as may be expected from those that are 
lovers of indolence. For from such conduct 
the destruction ensues of every thing which is 
common to the husband and wife. And thus 
much as to these particulars. 



59 

It is also requisite to lead the body to what 
is naturally moderate, with respect to nutri- 
ment, clothes, bathing, anointing, dressing the 
hair, and to whatever pertains to decoration 
from gold and jewels. For whatever of a 
sumptuous nature is employed by women in 
eating and drinking, in garments and trinkets, 
renders them disposed to be guilty of every 
crime, and to be unjust both to their hus- 
band's bed, and to every other person. It is 
requisite, therefore, that they should only sa- 
tisfy hunger and thirst, and this from things 
easily procured; and that they should defend 
themselves from cold by garments of the sim- 
plest kind. But to be fed with things which 
are brought from a distant country, or which 
are obtained at a great price, is no small vice. 
It is also great folly to search after exceedingly 
elegant garments, which are variegated with 
purple, or any other precious colour. For the 
body wishes to be neither cold nor naked, but 
to be covered for the sake of decorum, and is 
not [externally] in want of any thing else. The 
opinion of men, however, in conjunction with 
ignorance, proceeds to inanities and superflui- 
ties. Hence a woman should neither be deco- 
rated with gold, nor with Indian gems, nor 
with the jewels of any other nation, nor plait 
her hair with abundance of art, nor be perfumed 



60 

with Arabian unguents, nor paint her face so 
that it may be more white or more red, nor 
give a dark tinge to her eyebrows and her eyes, 
nor artificially dye her gray hairs, nor fre- 
quently bathe. For the woman who seeks 
after things of this kind searches for a specta- 
tor of female intemperance. For the beauty 
which is produced by prudence, and not by 
these particulars, pleases women that are well 
born. Nor should she conceive that nobility 
and wealth, the being born in a great city, 
glory, and the friendship of renowned and royal 
men, are to be ranked among things that are 
necessary. For if they happen to be present, 
they should not be the cause to her of any mo- 
lestation ; and if they should not be present, 
she should not regret their absence. For a 
prudent woman will not be prevented from 
living [properly] without these. And if those 
great and much admired things which we have 
mentioned should not be present, her soul 
should not anxiously explore, but withdraw 
itself from them. For in consequence of 
drawing their possessor to misfortune, they are 
more noxious than beneficial. For to these, 
treachery, envy, and calumny are adjacent, so 
that such a woman cannot be free from per- 
turbation. 

It is also necessary that she should venerate 



61 

the Gods through good hope of obtaining feli- 
city by this veneration, and by obeying the 
laws and sacred institutions of her country. 
But after the Gods, I say, that she should ho- 
nour and venerate her parents. For these 
cooperate with the Gods in benefiting their 
children. Moreover, she ought to live with 
her husband legally and kindly, conceiving 
nothing to be her own property, but preserving 
and being the guardian of his bed. For in the 
preservation of this all things are contained. 
It is likewise requisite that she should bear 
every thing [in a becoming manner] which may 
happen to her husband, whether he is unfor- 
tunate in his affairs, or acts erroneously through 
ignorance, or disease, or intoxication, or from 
having connection with other women. For 
this last error is granted to men ; but not to 
women, since they are punished for this offence. 
It is necessary, therefore, that she should sub- 
mit to the law with equanimity, and not be 
jealous. She ought likewise to bear patiently 
his anger, his parsimony, and the complaints 
which he may make of his destiny, his jea- 
lousy, and his accusation of her, and whatever 
other faults he may inherit from nature. For 
all these she should cheerfully endure, con- 
ducting herself towards him with prudence 



62 

and modesty. For a wife who is dear to her 
husband, and who truly performs her duty to- 
wards him, is a [domestic] harmony, and loves 
the whole of her family, to which also she con- 
ciliates the benevolence of strangers. If, how- 
ever, she neither loves her husband nor her 
children, nor her servants, nor wishes to see 
any sacrifice preserved ; then she becomes the 
leader of every kind of destruction, which she 
likewise prays for, as being an enemy, and also 
prays for the death of her husband, as being 
hostile to him, in order that she may be con- 
nected with other men ; and, in the last place, 
she hates whatever her husband loves. But it 
appears to me that a wife will be a [domestic] 
harmony, if she is full of prudence and mo- 
desty. For then she will not only love her hus- 
band, but also her children, her kindred, her 
servants, and the whole of her family, in which 
possessions, friends, citizens, and strangers are 
contained. She will likewise adorn the bodies 
of these without any superfluous ornaments, 
and will both speak and hear such things only 
as are beautiful and good. It is also requisite 
that she should act conformably to her hus- 
band's opinion in what pertains to their com- 
mon life, and be satisfied with those relatives 
and friends that meet with his approbation. 



63 



And she will conceive those things to be plea- 
sant and disagreeable which are thought to be 
so by her husband, unless she is entirely des- 
titute of harmony. 



FROM THE TREATISE OF PERICTYONE ON THE 
HARMONY OF A WOMAN*. 

Parents ought not to be injured either in 
word or deed ; but it is requisite to be obedi- 
ent to them, whether their rank in life is small 
or great. And in every allotted condition of 
soul and body, and of external circumstances, 
in peace, also, and war, in health [and sick- 
ness f], in riches and in poverty, in renown and 
ignominy, and whether they are of the same 
class with most of the community, or are ma- 
gistrates, it is necessary to be present with, 
and never to forsake them, and almost to sub- 
mit to them even when they are insane. For 
such conduct will be wisely and cheerfully 
adopted by those that are pious. But he who 
despises his parents will, both among the living 

* In this extract no mention whatever is made of the har- 
mony of a woman ; for it wholly consists of the duty of chil- 
dren to their parents. 

t tcai vo(tu> is omitted in the original, but ought, as it ap- 
pears to me, to be inserted. 



(34 

and the dead, be condemned for this crime by 
the Gods, will be hated by men, and under the 
earth will, together with the impious, be eter- 
nally # punished in the same place by Justice, 
and the subterranean Gods, whose province it 
is to inspect things of this kind. For the 
aspect of parents is a thing divine and beauti- 
ful, and a diligent observance of them is attended 
with a delight such as neither the survey of the 
sun, nor of all the stars which dance round the 
illuminated heavens, is capable of producing, 
nor any other spectacle, should it even be greater 
than this. And, it appears to me, that the 
Gods are not envious f when they perceive 
that this takes place. Hence it is requisite to 
reverence parents both while they are living, 
and when they are dead, and never oppose 
them in any thing they may say or do. If also 
they are ignorant of any thing through decep- 
tion or disease, their children should console 

* It is well observed by Olympiodorus, on the Phaedo of 
Plato, " that the soul is not punished by divinity through 
anger but medicinally ; and that by eternity of punishment 
we must understand punishment commensurate with the 
soul's partial period ; because souls that have committed 
the greatest offences cannot be sufficiently purified in one 
period." 

t For (j>povteiv in this place, which is evidently erroneous, 
I read tyQovsuv. 



65 

and instruct, but by no means hate them on 
this account. For no greater error and injus- 
tice can be committed by men than to act im- 
piously towards their parents. 



ON THE REVERENCE DUE TO PARENTS. FROM 
THE APOPHTHEGMS OF ARISTOXENUS, THE 
TARENTINE, 



After divinity and demons, the greatest at- 
tention should be paid to parents and the laws; 
not fictitiously, but in reality preparing our- 
selves to an observance of, and perseverance 
in, the manners and laws of our country, 
though they should be in a small degree worse 
than those of other countries. 



AND IN THE FOURTH BOOK OF THE SAME 
WORK*. 

But after these things follow the honours 
which should be paid to living parents, it being 
right to discharge the first, the greatest, and 

* The whole of this extract is to be found in the fourth 
book of Plato's Laws. (See torn. viii. p. 187, and 188, of 
the Bipont edition.) But there is occasionally some little 
difference between the text of Plato and that of Aristoxenus, 
as the critical reader will easily discover. Neither Fabri- 
cius nor the editors of Stobagus have noticed the source of 
this extract. 

P 



06 

the most ancient of all debts. Every one, 
likewise, should think that all which he pos- 
sesses belongs to those who begot and nur- 
tured him, in order that he may be ministrant 
to their want to the utmost of his ability, 
beginning from his property; in the second 
place discharging his debt to them from things 
pertaining to his body ; and in the third place, 
from things pertaining to his soul ; thus repay- 
ing with usury the cares and pains which his 
now very aged parents bestowed on him when 
he was young. Through the whole of life, 
likewise, it is requisite that he should parti- 
cularly employ the most respectful language 
in speaking to his parents ; because there is a 
most severe punishment for light and winged 
words ; and Nemesis, the messenger of Justice, 
is appointed to be the inspector of every thing 
of this kind. When parents, therefore, are 
angry, it is requisite to yield to them, and to 
appease their anger, whether it is shown in 
words or in deeds; acknowledging that a 
father may reasonably be very much enraged 
with his son, when he thinks he has been 
injured by him. But on the death of parents, 
the most decent and beautiful monuments 
should be raised to them; not exceeding the 
usual magnitude, nor yet less than those which 



67 

our ancestors erected for their parents. Every 
year, too, attention ought to be paid to the 
decoration of their tombs. They should, like- 
wise, be continually remembered and reve- 
renced, and this with a moderate and appro- 
priate expense. By always acting, therefore, 
and living in this manner, we shall each of us 
be rewarded according to our deserts, both by 
the Gods and those natures that are superior 
to us, and shall pass the greatest part of our 
life in good hope. 



FROM THE TREATISE OF PEMPELUS 
ON PARENTS *. 

Neither divinity, nor any man who possesses 
the least wisdom, will ever advise any one to 
neglect his parents. Hence we cannot have 
any statue or temple which will be considered 
by divinity as more precious than our fathers 
and grandfathers when grown feeble with age. 
For God will recompense him with benefits 
who honours his parents with gifts ; since if 

* The whole of this extract is taken from the eleventh 
book of Plato's Laws, but what is there said is here some- 
what amplified. 

f2 



68 

this is not done, divinity will not pay any atten- 
tion to the prayers of such parents for their 
children. The images of our parents, indeed, 
and progenitors should be esteemed by us as 
far more venerable and divine than any inani- 
mate images. For these animated images, 
when they are continually adorned and ren- 
dered splendid with honour by us, pray for us, 
and implore the gods to bestow on us the 
most excellent gifts: but the contrary when 
we despise them. Neither of these, however, 
is effected by inanimate images. Hence he 
who conducts himself in a becoming manner 
towards his parents and progenitors, and 
other relatives of this kind, will possess the 
most proper of all statues, and the best cal- 
culated to render him dear to divinity. Every 
one, therefore, endued with intellect should 
honour and venerate his parents, and should 
dread their execrations and [unfavourable] 
prayers, as knowing that many of them fre- 
quently take effect. These things, therefore, 
being thus disposed by nature, men that are 
prudent and modest will consider their living 
aged progenitors as a treasure, to the extremity 
of life; and if they die before they arrive at 
that period, they will be vehemently desired 
by them. On the contrary, progenitors will be 



terrible in the extreme to their depraved and 
stupid offspring. But he who, being profane, 
is deaf to these assertions, will be considered 
by all intelligent persons as odious both to 
Gods and men. 



FROM THE TREATISE OF PHINTYS, THE DAUGH- 
TER OF CALL1CRATES, ON THE TEMPERANCE 
OF A WOMAN. 

A woman ought to be wholly good and modest; 
but she will never be a character of this kind 
without virtue. For any virtue subsisting in 
any one thing renders th'at which receives it 
valuable. And the virtue, indeed, of the eyes 
is sight, but of the ears hearing. Thus, too, 
the virtue of a horse causes it to be a good 
horse ; and the virtue of a man and the virtue 
of a woman render each of them worthy. But 
the principal virtue of a woman is temperance; 
for through this she will be able to honour and 
love her husband. Many, indeed, may perhaps 
think it does not become a woman to philo- 
sophize, as neither is it proper for her to ride 
on horseback, nor to harangue in public. But 
I think that some things are the province of a 



70 

man, others of a woman, and that others are 
common both to man and woman. And, like- 
wise, that some things pertain more to a man 
than to a woman ; but others more to a woman 
than to a man. But the things peculiar to a 
man are, to lead an army, to govern, and to 
harangue in public. The offices peculiar to a 
woman are, to be the guardian of a house, to 
stay at home, and to receive and be ministrant 
to her husband. And the virtues pertaining to 
both are fortitude, justice, and prudence. For 
it is fit that both the husband and wife should 
have the virtues of the body, and in a similar 
manner those of the soul. And as health of 
body is beneficial to both, so also is health of 
soul. The virtues, however, of the body are 
health, strength, vigour of sensation, and 
beauty. With respect to the virtues, also, 
some are more adapted to be exercised and 
possessed by a man, but others by a woman. 
For fortitude and prudence pertain more to 
the man than to the woman, both on account 
of the habit of the body, and the power of the 
soul ; but temperance peculiarly belongs to the 
woman. Hence it is requisite to know the 
number and the quality of the things through 
which this virtue accedes to a woman. 1 say, 
therefore, that they are these five. And in the 



71 

first place, she obtains this virtue through 
sanctity and piety about the marriage bed. 
In the second place, through ornament pertain- 
ing to the body. In the third place, through 
egressions from her own house. In the fourth 
place, through refraining from the celebration 
of orgies, and the mysteries of the mother of 
the Gods*. And in the fifth place, through 
being cautious and moderate in the sacrifices 
to divinity. Of these, however, the greatest 
and most comprehensive cause of temperance, 
is that which causes the wife to be tmdefiled 
with respect to the marriage bed, and not to 
have connexion with any other man than her 
husband, For in the first place, by such ille- 
gal conduct, she acts unjustly towards the 
Gods who preside over nativities, rendering 
them not genuine but spurious adjutors of her 
family and kindred. In the second place, she 
acts unjustly towards the Gods who preside 
over nature, by whom she solemnly swore, in 
conjunction with her parents and kindred, that 
she would legally associate with her husband 
in the communion of life and the procreation 
of children. And in the third place, she acts 



* See p. 137, and 138, of my Translation of Iamblichus 
on the Mysteries. 



72 

unjustly towards her country, by not observing 
its decrees. To which may be added, that to 
offend against right in those things for which 
the greatest punishment, death, is ordained, 
on account of the magnitude of the crime, and 
to do so for the sake of pleasure and wanton 
insolence, is nefarious, and most undeserving 
of pardon. But the end of all insolent con- 
duct is destruction. 

This, also, ought to be considered, that no 
purifying remedy has been discovered for this 
offence, so as to render a woman thus guilty 
pure and beloved by divinity. For God is 
most averse to pardon this crime. But the 
best indication of the chastity of a woman 
towards her husband is that which arises from 
the resemblance of her children to their father. 
And thus much concerning the marriage bed. 

With respect, however, to the ornament of 
the body, it appears to me, that the garments 
of a woman should be white and simple, and 
by no means superfluous. But they will be 
so, if they are neither transparent nor va- 
riegated, nor woven from silk, but are not 
expensive, and are of a white colour. For thus 
she will avoid excessive ornament, luxury, and 
superfluous clothes; and will not produce a 
depraved imitation in others. And, in short, 



73 

she should not decorate her person with gold 
and emeralds. For they are very expensive, 
and exhibit pride and arrogance towards the 
vulgar. It is necessary, however, that a city 
which is governed by good laws, and is well 
arranged in all its parts, should accord with 
itself, and have an equable legislation; and 
should expel the artificers who make things of 
this kind from the city. She should, likewise, 
give a splendour to her face, not by employ- 
ing adscititious and foreign colour, but that 
which is adapted to the body, and is prdduced 
by washing it with water; and adorning her 
person through modesty rather than through 
art. For thus she will render both herself and 
her husband honourable. But the lower class 
of women should go out of their houses, for 
the purpose of sacrificing to the tutelar deity 
of the city, for the welfare of their husbands 
and all their family. A woman, also, should 
depart from her house neither by twilight nor 
in the evening, but should openly leave it when 
the forum is full of people; accompanied by 
one, or at most two servants, for the sake of 
beholding a certain thing, or of buying some- 
thing she may want. She should also offer 
frugal sacrifices to the Gods, and such as are 
adapted to her ability; but she should abstain 



74 

from the celebration of orgies, and from those 
sacred rites of the mother of the Gods, which 
are performed at home. For the common law 
of the city ordains that these shall not be per- 
formed by women. To which may be added, 
that these rites introduce ebriety, and mental 
alienation. It is necessary, however, that she 
who is the mistress of a family, and presides 
over domestic affairs, should be temperate and 
undefiled. 



ETHICAL FRAGMENTS 



OF 



HIEROCLES, 



HOW WE OUGHT TO CONDUCT OURSELVES 
TOWARDS THE GODS. 

Such particulars, also, as the following, are to 
be previously assumed concerning the Gods, 
viz. that they are immutable, and firm in their 
decrees ; so that they never change the concep- 
tion of what appeared to them to be fit from the 
beginning. For there is one immutability and 
firmness of the virtues, which it is reasonable to 
suppose subsists transcendently with the Gods, 
and which imparts a never failing stability to 
their conceptions. From which it is evident, 
that there is no probability that the punish- 
ments which divinity thinks proper to inflict can 



76 

be remitted. For it is easy to infer, that if 
the Gods change their decisions, and omit to 
punish him whom they had designed to punish, 
the world can neither be beautifully nor justly 
governed; nor can any probable reason for 
[the necessity of] repentance be assigned. 
Poetry also appears to have asserted such 
things as the following, — rashly, and without 
any reason : 

By incense and libation, gentle vows, 

And sacrifice and prayer, men bend the Gods, 

When they transgress, and stray from what is right*. 

And 

For flexible are e'en the Gods themselves f. 

And in short whatever of a similar nature is 
to be found in poetry. 

* Iliad IX. v. 495. 6. 7. 

t Iliad IX. v. 493. Hierocles is mistaken in saying that 
poetry rashly asserts that the Gods are flexible. For as I 
have observed in my Notes to Iamblichus on the Mysteries, 
divine flexibility indicates in Homer, and other theological 
poets of antiquity, that those who through depravity become 
unadapted to receive the illuminations of the Gods, when 
they afterwards obtain pardon of their guilt through prayers 
and sacrifices, again become partakers of the goodness of the 
Gods. So that divine flexibility is a resumption of the parti- 
cipation of divine light and goodness, by those who through 
inaptitude were before deprived of it. 



77 

Nor must we omit to observe, that though 
the Gods are not the causes of evil, yet they 
connect certain persons with things of this 
kind, and surround those who deserve [to be 
afflicted] with corporeal and external detri- 
ments; not through any malignity, or because 
they think it requisite that men should struggle 
with difficulties, but for the sake of punish- 
ment. For as pestilence and drought, and 
besides these excessive rain, earthquakes, and 
every thing of this kind, are for the most part 
produced through certain other more physical 
causes, yet sometimes are effected by the 
Gods, when the times are such that the ini- 
quity of the multitude, publicly, and in com- 
mon, requires to be punished ; after the same 
manner, also, the Gods sometimes afflict an 
individual with corporeal and external detri- 
ments, in order to punish him, and convert 
others to what is right. 

But to be persuaded that the Gods are never 
the cause of any evil # , contributes greatly, as 
it appears to me, to proper conduct towards 
the Gods. For evils proceed from vice alone, 

* See on this most interesting subject, that divinity is not 
the cause of evil, my translation of the Fragments of Proclus 
on the Subsistence of Evil, at the end of my translation of 
his six books On the Theology of Plato. 



78 

bat the Gods are of themselves the causes of 
good, and of whatever is advantageous ; while, 
in the meantime, we do not admit their bene- 
ficence, but surround ourselves with voluntary 
evils. Hence, on this occasion, it appears to 
me that it is well said by the poet : 



that mortals blame the Gods, 



as if they were the causes of their evils ! 



though not from Fate, 



But for their crimes they suffer pain and woe *. 

For that God is never in any way the cause of 
evil may be proved by many arguments ; but at 
present we shall only adduce what Plato f says: 
viz. " that as it is not the province of what is 
hot to refrigerate, but the contrary ; so neither 
is it the province of that which is beneficent to 
be noxious, but the contrary." Moreover, God 
being good, and immediately replete from the 
beginning with every virtue, cannot be noxious, 
or the cause to any one of evil ; but on the 
contrary, must impart every good to those who 
are willing to receive it ; bestowing on us, also, 

* See Odyss. I. v. 32, 33, 34. 

t See the first book of his Republic. 



79 

such media* as are according to nature, and 
which are effective of what is conformable 
to nature. But there is only one cause of 
evil f . 

HOW WE OUGHT TO CONDUCT OURSELVES 
TOWARDS OUR COUNTRY. 

After speaking of the Gods, it is most rea- 
sonable to show, in the next place, how we 
should conduct ourselves towards our country. 
For, by Jupiter, our country is as it were a 
certain secondary God, and our first and 
greatest parent. Hence he who gave a name 
to the thing did not rashly denominate it warpig, 
patris; this word being derived from irarvp, 
pater, a father; but pronounced with a femi- 

* i. e. Such things as are neither really good, nor really 
evil, but media between these. 

t After this last sentence, the words ravra ^pt], follow in 
the original; which evidently show that something is want- 
ing: as they are only the beginning of another sentence. 
This defect, however, is supplied in my copy of Stobaeus, 
(Eclog. Ethic, lib. II. p. 207), by some one in manuscript, 
as follows: ravra ypr] irpovoeiv, jurj Sia vov rv<p\ort]ra itat 
ayvu)}xo<Tvvr\v, ra (lege ravra) tj/uiv airavraauaL ; and he has 
also added the following Latin translation of these words : 
" Hasc oportet prospicere ne per mentis csecitatem et igno- 
rantiam haec nobis occurrant." But the addition, from what- 
ever source it was obtained, does not appear to me to be 
at all apposite ; and therefore I conceive it to be spurious. 



80 

nine termination, in order that it might be as 
it were a mixture of father and mother. This 
reason, also, proclaims that our country is to 
be honoured equally with our two parents; 
so that we ought to prefer it to either of them 
taken separately, and not to honour the two 
more than it; but to pay an equal portion of 
respect to each. There is, likewise, another 
reason, which exhorts us to honour it more 
than our two parents conjointly; and not only 
to honour it beyond these, but also to prefer it 
to our wife, children, and friends ; and, in 
short, after the Gods, to all other things. 

As, therefore, he is stupid who esteems one 
finger more than the five, but he is most rea- 
sonable who prefers the five to one; for the 
former despises what is more eligible, but the 
latter, in the five, preserves also the one finger: 
after the same manner, he who wishes to save 
himself rather than his country, in addition to 
acting unlawfully, desires impossibilities. But 
he who prefers his country to himself is dear 
to divinity ; and reasons fitly and firmly. At 
the same time it has been observed, that though 
some one should not be connumerated with 
the system [or the cooperating combination of 
the many], but should be considered apart 
from it, yet it is fit that he should prefer the 
safety of the system to his own preservation. 



81 

For the destruction of the city will evince 
that the safety of the citizen entirely depends 
on its existence, just as the abscission of the 
hand is attended with the destruction of one 
finger, as a part of the hand. We may, there- 4 
fore, summarily conclude, that general is not 
to be seperated from private utility: but is to 
be considered as one and the same with it. 
For that which is advantageous to the coun- 
try is common to each of the parts of it; since 
the whole without the parts is nothing*. And 
vice versa, that which is advantageous to the 
citizen extends also to the city, if it is assumed 
as beneficial to the citizen. For that which 
is useful to a dancer, so far as he is a dancer, 
will also be advantageous to the whole choir. 
Depositing, therefore, all this reasoning in the 
discursive power of the soul, we shall receive 
much light from it in particulars, so that we 

* This is true of the whole which consists of parts, so as 
not to be able to subsist without them. For whole has a triple 
substance ; viz. it is either prior to parts, or in other words, 
is a whole containing parts causally; or it consists of parts; 
or is in a part, so that a part, also, becomes a whole according 
to participation. A city, therefore, is a whole consisting of 
parts, any part of which being absent, diminishes the whole. 
See Prop. 67 of my translation of Proclus' Elements of The- 
ology ; and the second book of my translation of Proclus on 
the Timaens. 

G 



82 

shall never omit to perform what is due from 
us to our country. 

Hence, I say, it is necessary that every pas- 
sion and disease of the soul should be removed 
from him who intends to act well by his coun- 
try. It is likewise requisite that a citizen 
should observe the laws of his country as cer- 
tain secondary Gods, and should render him- 
self perfect conformably to their mandate. 
But he who endeavours either to transgress, or 
to make any innovation in the laws, should be 
with all possible diligence prevented from 
doing so, and in every way opposed. For a 
contempt of the existing laws, and preferring 
new to ancient laws, are things by no means 
beneficial to a city. Hence it is requisite that 
those should be restrained from giving their 
votes, and from precipitate innovation, who 
are pertinaciously disposed to act in this man- 
ner. I therefore commend Zaleucus, the Lo- 
crian legislator, who ordained, that he who 
intended to introduce a new law, should do it 
with a rope about his neck, in order that he 
might be immediately strangled, unless he 
could change the ancient constitution of the 
polity, to the very great advantage of the com- 
munity. Hut customs, which are truly those of 
the country, and which, perhaps, are more ancient 



83 

than the laivs themselves, are to be preserved no 
less than the laws. The present customs, how- 
ever, iv Inch are but of yesterday, and which have 
been so very recently introduced into every city, 
are not to be considered as the customs of the 
country, [or as the institutes of ancestors] ; and, 
perhaps, neither are they at all to be regarded 
as customs # . In the next place, because cus- 
tom is an unwritten law, having for its inscrip- 
tion a good legislator, viz. the approbation of 
all those that use it; perhaps, on this account, 
it is proximate to things which are naturally 
just. 



AFTER WHAT MANNER WE OUGHT TO CONDUCT 
OURSELVES TOWARDS OUR PARENTS. 

After speaking of the Gods and our country, 
what person deserves to be mentioned more 
than, or prior to our parents? Hence it is re- 
quisite that we should discourse about them. 
He, therefore, will not err who says, that they 

* When the intelligent reader considers that Hierocles 
flourished about the middle of the fifth century after Christ, 
he will immediately understand what the recent customs 
are to which Hierocles, in the above passage, alludes. 
Needham, in his translation of this passage, either did not 
understand the meaning of it, or wilfully omitted to trans- 
late it. 

G2 



84 

are certain secondary and terrestrial Gods; 
since on account of their proximity to us, they 
are, if it be lawful so to speak, more to be ho- 
noured by us than the Gods themselves*. 
But it is necessary, previously, to assume, that 
the only measure of gratitude towards them is 
a perpetual and unremitting promptitude to 
repay the benefits we have received from them ; 
since, though we should perform many things 
for their sake, yet they will be far less than 
what they deserve. At the same time, also, 
it may be said, that these our deeds are nearly 
theirs, because they produced us by whom 
they are performed. As therefore, if the works 
of Phidias and of other artists should them- 
selves produce certain other things, we should 
not hesitate to say that these latter, also, were 
the works of the artists ; thus, likewise, it may 
be justly said, that our performances are the 
deeds of our parents ; through whom we like- 
wise derived our existence. Hence, in order 
that we may easily apprehend the duties which 
we owe them, it will be requisite to have this 
sentence perpetually at hand, that our parents 

* The honours which we pay to divinity can be of no ad- 
vantage to him, but benefit us ; but the honours which we pay 
to our parents are beneficial to them. And in this sense, 
and in this only, the latter are to be honoured more than the 
former. 



85 

should be considered by us as the images of 
the Gods ; and by Jupiter, as domestic Gods, 
our benefactors, kindred, creditors, lords, and 
most stable friends. For they are most stable 
images of the Gods, possessing a similitude to 
them beyond the power of art to effect. For 
they are the guardian Gods of the house, and 
live with us; and besides this, they are our 
greatest benefactors, imparting to us things of 
the greatest consequence; and, by Jupiter, be- 
stowing on us not only what we possess, but 
also such things as they wish to give us, and 
for which they themselves pray. Farther still, 
they are likewise our nearest kindred, and the 
causes of our alliance with others. They are, 
also, creditors of things of the most honourable 
nature, and only repay themselves by taking 
what we shall be benefited by returning. For 
what gain can be so great to a child as piety 
and gratitude to his parents? They are most 
justly, too, our lords: for of what can we be 
in a greater degree the possession, than of 
those through whom we exist? Moreover, 
they are perpetual and spontaneous friends 
and auxiliaries ; at all times, and in every cir- 
cumstance, affording us assistance. Since, 
however, the name of parent is the most excel- 
lent of all the beforementioned appellations, 



80 

according to which we also denominate the 
Gods themselves; something else must also 
be added to this conception; viz. that children 
should be persuaded that they dwell in their 
father's house, as if they were certain ministers 
and priests in a temple, appointed and conse- 
crated for this purpose by nature herself; 
who entrusted a reverential attention to their 
parents to their care. Since of attentive regard, 
therefore, one kind pertains to the body, but 
another to the soul, we shall readily perform 
what each of these requires, if we are willing 
to do that which reason persuades us to do. 
But reason persuades us to pay less attention 
to the body than to the soul; though attention 
to the former is necessary. We should, there- 
fore, procure for our parents liberal food, and 
such as is adapted to the imbecility of old age ; 
and besides this, a bed, sleep, unction, a bath, 
garments ; and in short, all the necessaries 
which the body requires, that they may never 
at any time experience the want of any of these; 
in thus acting, imitating their care about our 
nurture, when we were infants. Hence, we 
should compel ourselves to employ a certain 
prophetic attention to them, in order to dis- 
cover what they particularly desire of things 
pertaining to the body, though they should not 



87 

indicate the object of their wish*. For they 
divined many things respecting us, when we 
frequently signified by inarticulate and mourn- 
ful sounds, that we were in want of certain 
things, but were unable to indicate clearly the 
subjects of our wants. So that our parents, 
by the benefits which they formerly conferred 
upon us, become the preceptors to us of what 
we ought to bestow on them. 

With respect to the souls of our parents, we 
should, in the first place, procure for them 
hilarity; which will be especially obtained, if 
we are conversant with them by night and by 
day, unless something prevents us, walking, 
being anointed, and living together with them. 
For as to those who are undertaking a long 
journey, the converse of their families and 
friends is most delightful, after the manner of 
those that accompany a solemn procession ; 
thus, also, to parents who are now verging to 
the grave,the sedulous and unremitting attention 

* This reminds me of what Pope, no less piously than 
pathetically says, respecting his mother, in the following 
most beautiful lines : 

" Me let the tender office long engage, 

To rock the cradle of reposing age, 

With lenient arts extend a mother's breath, 

Make languor smile, and smooth the bed of death ; 

Explore the thought, explain the asking eye, 

And keep awhile one parent from the sky. 

See his Seventh Epistle, near the end. 



88 

of their children is most acceptable, and most 
dear. Moreover, if at any time they should 
act wrong, which frequently happens to be the 
case with many, and especially with those who 
have been educated in a more vulgar manner ; 
they should be corrected indeed, yet not by 
Jupiter with reprehension, as we are accus- 
tomed to do to our inferiors or equals, but as 
it were, with exhortation ; and not as if they 
had erred through ignorance, but as if they 
had committed an oversight, through inatten- 
tion; and that if they had attended, they would 
by no means have erred. For admonitions, 
and especially if they are vehement, are grievous 
to those that are old. Hence, it is necessary, 
that the remedy of their oversight should be 
accompanied by mild exhortation, and a cer- 
tain elegant artifice. Children, likewise, in- 
crease the joy of their parents, by performing 
for them servile offices, such as washing their 
feet, making their bed, and waiting on them 
after the manner of servants. For they are 
not a little delighted, when they receive ne- 
sessary servile attentions from the most dear 
hands of their children, and make use of their 
ministrant works. But parents will be espe- 
cially gratified when their children are seen to 
honour those whom they love and very much 
esteem. On which account, it is fit that chil- 



89 

dren should affectionately love the kindred of 
their parents, and pay a proper attention to 
then), and in a similar manner should love the 
friends of, and all those that are dear to their 
parents. And this being admitted, we shall be 
enabled to collect many other duties of chil- 
dren to their parents, which are neither small 
nor casual. For since our parents are grati- 
fied by the attention which we pay to those 
whom they love, but we are in a most eminent 
degree beloved by our parents, it is evident 
that we shall very much please them, by pay- 
ing a proper attention to ourselves. 



ON FRATERNAL LOVE. 

The first admonition, therefore, is very clear, 
easily obtained, and is common to all men. 
For it is a sane assertiou, which every man 
will consider as evident. And it is this : Act 
by every one, in the same manner as if you 
supposed yourself to be him, and him to be 
you*. For he will use a servant well who con- 

* The following extract from Sir William Jones, as given 
by Moor in his Hindu Pantheon, p. 421, demonstrates the 
great antiquity of this precept: 

" Our divine religion has no need of such aids as many 
are willing to give it; by asserting that the wisest men of 



90 

siclers with himself, how he would think it 
proper to be used by him, if he indeed was the 

this world were ignorant of the two great maxims — that we 
must act in respect of others as we should wish them to act in 
respect of ourselves — and that, instead of returning evil for 
evil, we should confer benefits on those who injure us. But 
the first rule is implied in a speech of Lysias, and expressed 
in distinct phrases by Thales and Pittacus ; and I have even 
seen it word for word, in the original of Confucius, which I 
carefully compared with the Latin translation. If the con- 
version, therefore, of the Pandits and Maulavis, in India, 
shall ever be attempted by protestant missionaries, they must 
beware of asserting, while they teach the gospel, what those 
Pandits and Maulavis would know to be false. The former 
would cite the beautiful Arya couplet, which was written at 
least three centuries before our era, and which pronounce 
the duty of a good man, even in the moment of destruction, 
to consist, not only in forgiving , but even in a desire of bene- 
fiting his destroyer — as the sandal tree, in the instant of its 
overthrow, sheds perfume on the axe which fells it. And the 
latter would triumph, in repeating the verse of Sadi, who 
represents a return of good for good as a slight reciprocity ; 
but says to the virtuous man, ' Confer benefits on him who 
has injured thee:' using an Arabic sentence, and a maxim 
apparently of the ancient Arabs. Nor would the Mussul- 
mans fail to recite four distichs of Hafiz, who has illustrated 
that maxim with fanciful but elegant allusions : — . 

" Learn from yon orient shell to love thy foe, 
And store with pearls the hand that brings thee woe : 
Free, like yon rock, from base vindictive pride, 
Emblaze with gems the wrist that rends thy side. 
Mark where yon tree rewards the stony shower 
With fruit nectarious, or the balmy flower : 
All nature calls aloud — ' Shall man do less 
Than heal the smiter, and the railer bless?' " 

As. Res. Vol. IV. 



91 

master, and himself the servant. The same 
thing also must be said of parents with respect 
to children, and of children with respect to 
parents ; and, in short, of all men with respect 
to all. This admonition, however, is transcen- 
dently adapted to the alliance of brothers to 
each other; since nothing else is necessary for 
him to admit previously, who considers how 
he ought to conduct himself towards his bro- 
ther, than promptly to assume the natural 
sameness of the person of each of them. This, 
therefore, is the first admonition, that a man 
should act towards his brother in the same 
way in which he would think it proper that his 
brother should act towards him. But, by Ju- 
piter, some one may say, I do not exceed pro- 
priety in my manners and am equitable, but 
my brother's manners are rough and without 
affability. Such a one, however, does not 
speak rightly. For, in the first place, perhaps 
he does not speak the truth ; since an excessive 
love of self is sufficient [to induce a man] to 
magnify and extol what pertains to himself, but 
to diminish and vilify what pertains to others. 
Frequently, therefore, men of inferior worth, 
prefer themselves to others who are far more 
excellent characters. And, in the next place, 
though the brother should be in reality such a 
person [as above described], I should say, 



92 

prove yourself to be a better man than he is, 
and you will- vanquish his rusticity by your 
beneficence. x For no great thanks are due to 
those who conduct themselves moderately to- 
wards worthy and benignant men ; but to ren- 
der him more mild who is stupid, and whose 
manners are rough, is the work of a man [pro- 
perly so called], and deserves great applause. 
Nor is it at all impossible for the exhortation 
to take effect. For in men of the most absurd 
manners, there are the seeds of a mutation to 
a better condition, and of honour and love for 
their benefactors. For are not even savage 
animals, and such as are naturally most hostile 
to our race, and who are taken away by vio- 
lence, and at first are detained by chains, and 
confined in iron cages, — are not these after- 
wards rendered mild by a certain mode of 
treatment, and by daily supplying them with 
food ? And will not the man who is a brother, 
or even any casual person, who deserves atten- 
tion in a much greater degree than a brute, 
be changed to milder manners by proper treat- 
ment, though he should not entirely forsake 
his rusticity? In our behaviour, therefore, to- 
wards every man, and in a much greater degree 
towards a brother, we should imitate the reply 
of Socrates to one who said to him, " May I 
die unless I am revenged on you." For his 



m 

answer was, " May I die, if I do not make yon 
my friend. " And thus much concerning these 
particulars. 

In the next place, a man should consider 
that after a manner his brothers are parts of 
him, just as my eyes are parts of me; and like- 
wise my legs, my hands, and the remaining 
members of my body. For brothers have the 
same relation to a family considered as one 
thing [as the parts to the whole of the body]. 
As, therefore, the eyes and the hands, if each 
of them should receive a peculiar soul and in- 
tellect, would, by every possible contrivance, 
pay a guardian attention to the remaining parts 
of the body, on account of the beforementioned 
communion, because they could not perform 
their proper office well without the presence of 
the other members; thus also it is requisite 
that we who are men, and who acknowledge 
that we have a soul, should omit no offices 
which it becomes us to perform to our bro- 
thers. For again, brothers are more naturally 
adapted to assist each other, than are the parts 
of the body. For the eyes, indeed, being pre- 
sent with each other, see what is before them, 
and one hand cooperates with the other which 
is present; but the mutual works of brothers 
are, in a certain respect, much more multifari- 
ous. For they perform things which are pro- 



94 

fitable in common, though they should be at 
the greatest distance from each other ; and they 
greatly benefit each other, though the interval 
which separates them should be immeasurable. 
In short, it must be considered, that our life 
appears to be a certain long war continued to 
the extent of many years ; and this partly 
through the nature of the things themselves 
which possess a certain opposition ; and partly 
through the sudden and unexpected occur- 
rences of fortune ; but most of all through vice 
itself, which neither abstains from any violence, 
nor from any fraud and evil stratagems. Hence 
nature, as not being ignorant of the purpose for 
which she generated us, produced each of us 
accompanied, after a certain manner, by an 
auxiliary. No one, therefore, is alone, nor 
does he derive his origin from an oak or a rock, 
but from parents, and in conjunction with bro- 
thers, and kindred, and other familiars. But 
reason affords us great assistance, conciliating 
to us strangers, and those who have no con- 
nection with us by blood, and procuring for us 
an abundance of auxiliars. On this account 
we naturally endeavour to allure and make 
every one our friend. Hence it is a thing per- 
fectly insane to wish to be united to those who 
have not any thing from nature which is capa- 
ble of procuring our love, and voluntarily to 



95 

become familiar with them in the most ex- 
tended degree ; and yet neglect those prompt 
auxiliars and associates which are supplied by 
nature herself, such as brothers happen to be. 



ON WEDLOCK. 

The discussion of wedlock is a thing most ne- 
cessary. For the whole of our race is natu- 
rally adapted to society. But the first and 
most elementary of all associations is that 
which is effected by marriage. For cities could 
not exist without a household ; but the house- 
hold of an unmarried man is truly imperfect; 
while, on the contrary, of him who is married, 
it is perfect and full. Hence we have shown 
in our treatise On Families, that a life accom- 
panied by wedlock is to be precedaneously 
chosen by the wise man ; but a single life is 
not to be chosen, except particular circum- 
stances* require it. So that as it is requisite 

* viz. Such circumstances as induced Plato, Plotinus, 
Proclus, and man}' other ancieut philosophers, not to engage 
in wedlock, because they found that they could give greater 
assistance to philosophy by continuing single; but Pythago- 
ras and Socrates, though they rank among the wisest men 
that ever lived, did not find a married life incompatible with 
the cultivation of philosophy in the highest perfection possi- 
ble to man. Wedlock, therefore, is never to be avoided 
from any sordid and selfish motives. 



96 

we should imitate the man of intellect where 
we can, but marriage is with him an object of 
precedaneous choice; it is evident that it will 
also be proper for us, unless some circumstance 
occurs to prevent it from taking place. And 
this is the first reason why wedlock is most 
necessary. 

But it seems that Nature herself, prior to the 
wise man, incites us to this, who also exhorts 
the wise man to marry. For she not only made 
us gregarious, but likewise adapted to copula- 
tion, and proposed the procreation of children 
and stability of life, as the one and common 
work of wedlock. But Nature justly teaches 
us, that a choice of such things as are fit should 
be made so as to accord with what she has 
procured for us. Every animal, therefore, lives 
conformably to its natural constitution, and, 
by Jupiter, in a similar manner every plant 
lives agreeably to the life which is imparted to 
it. Only there is this difference between the 
two, that the latter do not employ any reason- 
ing, or a certain enumeration, in the selection 
of things which they explore; as they make 
use of nature alone, because they do not parti- 
cipate of soul ; but animals are led to investi- 
gate what is proper for them by imaginations 
and exciting desires. To us, however, Nature 
gave reason, in order that it might survey every 



97 

thing else, and, together with all things, or 
rather prior to all things, might direct its atten- 
tion to Nature herself, so as in an orderly man- 
ner to tend to her as to a very splendid and 
stable mark, and choosing every thing which is 
consonant to her, might cause us to live in a be- 
coming manner. Hence he will not err, who 
says that a family is imperfect without wed- 
lock. For it is not possible to conceive of a 
governor without the governed, nor of the go- 
verned without a governor. And this reason 
appears to me to be very well calculated to 
make those ashamed who are adverse to mar- 
riage. 

I say, therefore, that marriage is likewise 
advantageous. In the first place, indeed, be- 
cause it produces a truly divine fruit, the pro- 
creation of children, since they will be assist- 
ants to us in all our actions (as partaking of 
our nature), while our strength is yet entire; 
and they will be good auxiliars, when we are 
worn out, and oppressed with old age. They 
will also be the familiar associates of our joy 
in prosperity, and sympathizing participants of 
our sorrows in adversity. Farther still, be- 
sides the procreation of children, the associa- 
tion with a wife is advantageous. For, in 
the first place, when we are wearied with 
labours out of the house, she receives us with 

H 



98 

officious kindness, and recreates us by every 
possible attention. In the next place, she pro- 
duces in us an oblivion of our molestations. 
For those sorrowful circumstances of life which 
take place in the forum, or the gymnasium, or 
the country, and, in short, all the cares and 
solicitudes occasioned by converse with our 
friends and familiars, do not so obviously mo- 
lest us, being obscured by our necessary occu- 
pations ; but when we are liberated from these, 
return home, and our mind becomes, as it 
were, at leisure, then these cares and solici- 
tudes approach, availing themselves of this 
occasion, in order to torment us, at the time 
when life is destitute of benevolence, and is 
solitary. Then, however, the wife being pre- 
sent becomes a great solace on this occasion, 
by making some inquiries about external af- 
affairs, or by referring to, and considering, to- 
gether with her husband, something about do- 
mestic concerns, and thus, by her unfeigned 
alacrity, affords him a certain exuberance of 
pleasure and delight. But it would be too 
prolix to enumerate particularly the benefit of 
a wife in festivals, for the purpose of procuring 
sacrifices and victims ; in the journeys of her 
husband, by preserving the family in a stable 
condition, and not suffering it to be entirely 
without a ruler ; in paying proper attention to 



99 

the domestics; and in the aid which she af- 
fords her husband when he is afflicted with 
disease. For it is sufficient summarily to say, 
that tivo things are necessary to all men, in order 
to pass through life in a becoming manner, viz. 
the aid of kindred and sympathetic benevolence. 
JBut we cannot find any thing more sympathetic 
than a ivife, nor any thing more kindred than 
children. Both these, however, marriage af- 
fords. How is it possible, therefore, that it 
should not be most advantageous to us? 

I also think that a married life is beautiful. 
For what other thing can be such an ornament 
to a family, as is the association of husband 
and wife? For it must not be said that sump- 
tuous edifices, walls covered with marble plas- 
ter, and piazzas adorned with stones, which 
are admired by those who are ignorant of true 
good, nor yet paintings and arched myrtle 
walks, nor any thing else which is the subject 
of astonishment to the stupid # , is the ornament 
of a family. But the beauty of a household 

* Hence Diogenes, in perfect conformity with that digni- 
fied independence of character which he so eminently pos- 
sessed, and which is to be found more or less in the conduct 
of all the ancient philosophers, when a certain wealthy and 
ostentatious man brought him to a fine house which he had 
built, and desired him not to spit, as he perceived he begun 
to hawk, spit in the man's face, observing at the same time, 
that he could not find a worse place to spit in. 

H 2 



L.ofQ t j 



100 

consists in the conjunction of man and wife, 
who are united to each other by destiny, and 
are consecrated to the Gods who preside over 
nuptials, births, and houses, and who accord, 
indeed, with each other, and have all things 
in common, as far as to their bodies, or rather 
their souls themselves; who likewise exercise 
a becoming authority over their house and ser- 
vants ; are properly solicitous about the edu- 
cation of their children ; and pay an attention 
to the necessaries of life, which is neither ex- 
cessive nor negligent, but moderate and appro- 
priate. For what can be better and more ex- 
cellent, as the most admirable Homer says, 

Than when at home the husband and the wife 
Unanimously live*. 

On which account I have frequently wondered 
at those who conceive that the life with a wo- 
man is burdensome and grievous. For a wife 
is not by Jupiter either a burden or a molesta- 
tion, as to them she appears to be ; but, on the 
contrary, she is something light and easy to be 
borne, or rather, she possesses the power of 
exonerating her husband from things truly 
troublesome and weighty. For there is not 
any thing so troublesome which will not be 

* Odyss. lib. 7, v. 183. 



101 

easily borne by a husband and wife when they 
are concordant, and are willing to endure it in 
common. But imprudence is truly burden- 
some, and difficult to be borne by its posses- 
sors : for through it things naturally light, and 
among others a wife, become heavy. In reality, 
indeed, marriage to many is intolerable, not 
from itself, or because such an association as 
this with a woman is naturally insufferable ; 
but when we marry those whom we ought not, 
and, together with this, are ourselves entirely 
ignorant of life, and unprepared to take a wife 
in such a way as a free and ingenuous woman 
ought to be taken, then it happens that this 
association with her becomes difficult and into- 
lerable. It is certain, indeed, that marriage is 
effected by the vulgar after this manner. For 
they do not take a wife for the sake of the pro- 
creation of children, and the association of life; 
but some are induced to marry through the 
magnitude of the portion, others through trans- 
cendency of form, and others through other 
such like causes ; and by employing these bad 
counsellors, they pay no attention to the dis- 
position and manners of the bride, but cele- 
brate nuptials to their own destruction, and 
with their doors crowned introduce to them- 
selves a tyrant instead of a wife, whom they 
cannot resist, and with whom they are unable 



102 

to contend for the chief authority. It is evi- 
dent, therefore, that marriage 'through these 
causes, and not through itself, becomes bur- 
densome and intolerable to many. It is pro- 
per, however, as it is said, neither to blame 
things which are innoxious, nor to make our 
imbecility in the use of things the cause of 
complaint against them. Besides, it is also in 
other respects'most absurd, to investigate on 
all sides the auxiliaries of friendship, and pro- 
cure certain friends and associates, as those 
who will aid and defend us in the difficulties of 
life, and yet not explore and endeavour to ob- 
tain that relief, defence, and assistance which 
are afforded us by nature, by the laws, and by 
the Gods, through a wife and children. 

With respect to a numerous offspring, it is 
after a certain manner, according to nature and 
consentaneous to marriage, that all, or the 
greatest part of those that are born, should be 
nurtured. Many, however, appear to be un- 
persuaded by this admonition, through a cause 
not very decorous : for they are thus affected 
through a love of riches, and because they 
think poverty to be a transcendently great evil. 
In the first place, therefore, it must be consi- 
dered, that in procreating children, we not only 
beget assistants for ourselves, nourishers of our 
old age, and participants with us of every for- 



103 

tune and every circumstance that may occur in 
life ; — I say, we do not beget them for ourselves 
alone, but in many things also for our parents. 
For the procreation of children is gratifying to 
them; because, if we should suffer any thing of 
a calamitous nature prior to their decease, we 
shall leave our children instead of ourselves, as 
the support of their old age. But it is a beau- 
tiful thing for a grandfather to be conducted 
by the hands of his grandchildren, and to be 
considered by them as deserving of every other 
attention. Hence, in the first place, we shall 
gratify our own parents, by paying attention to 
the procreation of children. And, in the next 
place, we shall cooperate with the prayers and 
ardent wishes of those that begot us. For they 
from the first were solicitous about our birth, 
conceiving that through it there would be a 
very extended succession of themselves, and 
that they shall leave behind them children of 
children, and have to pay attention to our mar- 
riage, our procreation, and nurture. Hence, 
by marrying and begetting children, we shall 
accomplish, as it were, a part of their prayers ; 
but, by being of a contrary opinion/ we shall cut 
off the object of their deliberate choice. More- 
over, it appears that every one who voluntarily, 
andwithout some prohibiting circumstance, avoids 



104 

marriage, and the procreation of children, ac- 
cuses his parents of madness, as not having en- 
gaged in ivedlock with right conceptions of 
things. It is easy also to see, that such a one 
forms an incongruous opinion. For how is it 
possible that he should not be full of dissen- 
sion, who finds a pleasure in living, and wil- 
lingly continues in life as one who was pro- 
duced into existence in a becoming manner by 
his parents, and yet conceives that for him to 
procreate others is one among the number of 
things which are to be rejected? In the first 
place, however, as we have before observed, it 
is requisite to consider, that we do not beget 
children for our own sakes alone, but for those 
also through whom we ourselves were begot- 
ten ; and, in the next place, for the sake of our 
friends and kindred. For it is gratifying to 
these to see children which are our offspring, 
both on account of benevolence and propin- 
quity, and on account of security. For the 
life of those to whom these pertain, is esta- 
blished as in a port by a thing of this kind, 
analogously to ships, which, though greatly 
agitated by the waves of the sea, are firmly se- 
cured by many anchors. On this account, the 
man who is a lover of his kindred, and a lover 
of his associates, will earnestly desire to marry 



105 

and procreate children. We are likewise 
loudly called upon by our country to do so. 
For we do not beget children so much for our- 
selves as for our country, procuring a race that 
may follow us, and supplying the community 
with our successors. Hence the priest should 
know that he owes priests to his city ; the 
ruler that he owes rulers ; the public orator 
public orators ; and, in short, the citizen that 
he owes citizens to it. As, therefore, to a 
choir the perennial continuance of those that 
compose it is gratifying, and to an army the 
duration of the soldiers, so to a city is the last- 
ingness of the citizens. If, indeed, a city was 
a certain system of a short duration, and the 
life of it was commensurate with the life of 
man, it would not be in want of succession. 
But since it is extended to many generations, 
and if it employs a more fortunate daemon en- 
dures for many ages, it is evident that it is not 
only necessary to direct our attention to the 
present, but also to the future time, and not des- 
pise our natal soil, and leave it desolate, but 
establish it in good hopes from our posterity. 



106 



HOW WE OUGHT TO CONDUCT OURSELVES 
TOWARDS OUR [OTHER] KINDRED. 

The consideration of the duties pertaining to 
[our other] kindred is consequent to the dis- 
cussion of those that pertain to parents, bro- 
thers, wives, and children; for the same things 
may, in a certain respect, be said of the former 
as of the latter; and on this account may be 
concisely explained. For, in short, each of us 
is, as it were, circumscribed by many circles ; 
some of which are less, but others larger, and 
some comprehend, but others are compre- 
hended, according to the different and unequal 
habitudes with respect to each other. For the 
first, indeed, and most proximate circle is that 
which every one describes about his own mind 
as a centre, in which circle the body, and 
whatever is assumed for the sake of the body, 
are comprehended. For this is nearly the 
smallest circle, and almost touches the centre 
itself. The second from this, and which is at 
a greater distance from the centre, but com- 
prehends the first circle, is that in which pa- 
rents, brothers, wife, and children are arranged. 
The third circle from the centre is that which 
contains uncles and aunts, grandfathers and 
grandmothers, and the children of brothers and 



107 

sisters. After this is the circle which compre- 
hends the remaining relatives. Next to this is 
that which contains the common people, then 
that which comprehends those of the same 
tribe, afterwards that which contains the citi- 
zens; and then two other circles follow, one 
being the circle of those that dwell in the vici- 
nity of the city, and the other, of those of the 
same province. But the outermost and great- 
est circle, and which comprehends all the other 
circles, is that of the whole human race* 

* This admirable passage is so conformable to the follow- 
ing beautiful lines in Pope's Essay on Man, that it is most 
probably the source from whence they were derived. The 
lines are these: 

" Self love but serves the virtuous mind to wake, 
As the small pebble stirs the peaceful lake, 
The centre moved, a circle straight succeeds, 
Another still, and still another spreads, 
Friend, parent, neighbour first it will embrace, 
His country next, and next all human race ; 
Wide and more wide the' o'erflowings of the mind, 
Take every creature in of every kind." 

In Hierocles, however, the circles are scientifically de- 
tailed; but in Pope they are synoptically enumerated. 
Pope, too, has added another circle to that which is the 
outermost with Hierocles, viz. the circle which embraces 
every creature of every kind. But as Hierocles in this frag- 
ment is only speaking of our duties to kindred, among which 
the whole human race is, in a certain respect, included, he 
had no occasion to introduce another circle, though the Pla- 
tonic doctrine of benevolence is as widely extended as that 
of Pope. 



108 

These things being thus considered, it is the 
province of him who strives to conduct him- 



As the selflove, however, mentioned here by our poet is 
of a virtuous nature, and is wholly different from that selflove 
which is reprehensible, and is possessed by the vulgar, I 
shall present the reader with what Aristotle says concerning 
the former in the 9th book of his Nicomachean Ethics, as 
the distinction between the two is at present but little known. 

Aristotle, therefore, having observed, that the selflove of 
the multitude leads them to distribute to themselves the 
greater part in wealth and honours, and corporeal pleasures, 
and that in consequence of vindicating to themselves more 
of these things than is fit, they are subservient to desires 
and passions, and the irrational part of the soul, adds as 
follows : 

" He who always earnestly endeavours to act justly or 
temperately, or to act according to any other of the virtues, 
the most of all things, and, in short, who always vindicates 
to himself that which is beautiful in conduct; such a man 
will never be called by any one a lover of himself, nor will 
he be blamed by any one. It would seem, however, that 
such a man as this is, in a greater degree, a lover of himself; 
for he distributes to himself things which are most eminently 
beautiful and good, is gratified in his most principal part [in- 
tellect], and in all things is obedient to it. But as that which 
is the most principal thing in a city appears to be most emi- 
nently the city, and this is the case in every other system of 
things; thus, also, that which is most principal in man is 
especially the man. He, therefore, who loves this principal 
part of himself, is especially a lover of himself, and is grati- 
fied with this. That every man, therefore, is principally in- 
tellect, and that the worthy man principally loves this is not 
immanifest. Hence, he will be especially a lover of him- 
self, according to a different species of selflove from that 
which is disgraceful, and differing as much from it as to live 



109 

self properly in each of these connections to 
collect, in a certain respect, the circles, as it 
were, to one centre, and always to endeavour 
earnestly to transfer himself from the compre- 
hending circles to the several particulars which 
they comprehend. It pertains, therefore, to 
the man who is a lover of kindred [to conduct 
himself in a becoming manner*] towards his 
parents and brothers; also, according to the 
same analogy, towards the more elderly of his 
relatives of both sexes, such as grandfathers, 

according to reason differs from living according to passion, 
and as much as the desire of that which is beautiful in con- 
duct differs from the desire of that which appears to be ad- 
vantageous. Hence it is necessary that a good man should 
be a lover of himself; for he himself is benefited by acting 
well, and he also benefits others. But it is not proper that 
a depraved man should be a lover of himself; for he will 
hurt both himself and his neighbours, in consequence of 
being subservient to base passions. With the depraved man, 
therefore, there is a dissonance between what he ought to do 
and what he does; but with the worthy man, those things 
which he ought to do he also does.''' 

Conformably to what Aristotle asserts in this last sentence, 
Seneca also says, " Sapiens nihil facit quod non debet, et 
nihil praetermittit quod debet." i. e. " The wise man does 
nothing which he ought not to do, and omits nothing which he 
ought to do.*' 

* There is a deficiency here in the original, which I have 
endeavoured to supply in the translation by the words in the 
brackets. It appears to me, therefore, that the words 



110 

uncles and aunts ; towards those of the same 
age with himself, as his cousins; and towards 
his juniors, as the children of his cousins. 
Hence we have summarily shown how we 
ought to conduct ourselves towards our kin- 
dred, having before taught how we should act 
towards ourselves, our parents, and brothers ; 
and besides these, towards our wife and chil- 
dren. To which it must be added, that those 
who belong to the third circle must be honoured 
similarly to these ; and again, kindred simi- 
larly to those that belong to the third circle. 
For something of benevolence must be taken 
away from those who are more distant from 
us by blood ; though at the same time we 
should endeavour that an assimilation may 
take place between us and them. For this 
distance will become moderate, if, through the 
diligent attention # which we pay to them, we 
cut off the length of the habitude towards each 
individual of these. We have unfolded, there- 
fore, that which is most comprehensive and 
important in the duties pertaining to kin- 
dred. 

It is requisite, likewise, to add a proper 
measure conformably to the general use of 
appellations, calling indeed cousins, uncles 

* For evffTctffscjs, in this place in the original, I read 

ZTTIOTCKJEUQ. 



Ill 

and aunts, by the name of brothers, fathers 
and mothers; but of other kindred, to deno- 
minate some uncles, others the children of 
brothers or sisters, and others cousins, accord- 
ing to the difference of age, for the sake of the 
abundant extension which there is in names. 
For this mode of appellation will be no ob- 
scure indication of our sedulous attention to 
each of these relatives; and at the same time 
will incite, and extend us in a greater degree, 
to the contraction as it were of the above men- 
tioned circles. But as we have proceeded 
thus far in our discussion, it will not be unsea- 
sonable to recall to our memory the distinc- 
tion with respect to parents, which we before 
made. For in that place in which we com- 
pared mother with father, we said that it was 
requisite to attribute more of love to a mother, 
and more of honour to a father; and conform- 
ably to this, we shall here add, that it is fit to 
have more love for those who are connected 
with us by a maternal alliance, but to pay 
more honour to those who are related to us 
by a paternal affinity. 



112 



ON ECONOMICS. 



Prior to all things, it is requisite to speak of 
the works through which the union of a family 
is preserved. These, therefore, are to be di- 
vided after the accustomed manner; viz. rural, 
forensic, and political works are to be attri- 
buted to the husband; but to the wife, such 
works as pertain to spinning wool, making of 
bread, cooking, and, in short, every thing of a 
domestic nature. Nevertheless, it is not fit 
that the one should be entirely exempt from 
the works of the other. For sometimes it will 
be proper when the wife is in the country that 
she should superintend the labourers, and per- 
form the office of the master of the house ; and 
that the husband should sometimes convert his 
attention to domestic affairs ; and partly in- 
quire about, and partly inspect what is doing 
in the house. For thus, what pertains to the 
mutual association of both will be more firmly 
connected by their joint participation of neces- 
sary cares. Since, however, our discussion 
has extended thus far, it appears to me that I 
ought not to omit to mention manual opera- 



113 

tions ; for it will not be incongruous to add 
this also to what has been said about works. 

What occasion, therefore, is there to say, 
that it is fit the man should meddle with agri- 
cultural labours ? For there are not many by 
whom this will not be admitted. But though 
so much luxury and idleness occupies the life 
of men of the present day, yet it is rare to find 
one who is not willing to engage in the labour 
of sowing and planting ; and to be employed 
in other works which pertain to agriculture. 
Perhaps, however, the arguments will be much 
less persuasive, which call on the man to 
engage in those other works which belong to 
the woman. For such men as pay great at- 
tention to neatness and cleanliness will not 
conceive the spinning of wool to be their busi- 
ness : since, for the most part, vile diminutive 
men, and the tribe of such as are delicate and 
effeminate apply themselves to the elaboration 
of wool, through an emulation of feminine soft- 
ness. But it does not become a man, who is 
truly so called, to apply himself to things of 
this kind; so that neither shall I, perhaps, ad- 
vise those to engage in such employments, who 
have not given perfectly credible indications 
of their virility and modesty. What, there- 
fore, should hinder the man from partaking of 

i 



114 

the works which pertain to a woman, whose 
past life has been such as to free him from all 
suspicion of absurd and effeminate conduct? 
For in other domestic works, is it not thought 
that more of them pertain to men than to 
women ? For they are more laborious, and 
require corporeal strength, such as to grind, 
to knead meal, to cut wood, to draw water 
from a well, to transfer large vessels from one 
place to another ; to shake coverlets and car- 
pets, and every other work similar to these. 
And it will be sufficient, indeed, for these 
things to be performed by men. But it is 
also fit that some addition should be made to 
the legitimate work of a woman, so that she 
may not only engage with her maid servants 
in the spinning of wool, but may also apply 
herself to other more virile works. For it ap- 
pears to me that the making of bread, the 
drawing of water [from a well], the lighting of 
fires, the making of beds, and every other work 
similar to these are the proper employments 
of a freeborn woman. But a wife will seem 
much more beautiful to her husband, and espe- 
cially if she is young, and not yet worn out by 
the bearing of children, if she becomes his 
associate in gathering grapes, and collecting 
olives ; and if he is verging to old age, she will 



115 

render herself more pleasing to him, by par- 
taking with him of the labour of sowing and 
ploughing, and extending to him, while he is 
digging or planting, the instruments proper 
for such works. For when a family is go- 
verned after this manner by the husband and 
wife, so far as pertains to necessary works, it 
appears to me that it will be conducted in this 
respect in the best manner. 



THE END. 



C C^ttttnatfjam, (JLoIIege ^ouge, C&igtoiefc. 



THE FOLLOWING IS A LIST 

OF 

TRANSLATIONS AND ORIGINAL WORKS, 
BY T. TAYLOR. 



FROM THE GREEK. 
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PLOTINUS ON THE BEAUTIFUL, 12mo. Is. 6d. 
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PROCLUS ON EUCLID, and his Elements of Theo- 
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FOUR DIALOGUES OF PLATO, viz. the Cratylus, 

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SELECT WORKS OF PLOTINUS, and Extracts 
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PROCLUS ON PROVIDENCE AND FATE; Ex- 

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Plato. 



©rtgtnal ZUoxU. 

HISTORY OF THE RESTORATION OF THE 

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the second vol. of Proclus on Euclid. 

A DISSERTATION ON THE ELEUSINIAN 

AND BACCHIC MYSTERIES, in which much new and important 
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ORIGINAL WORKS, BY T. TAYLOR. 

A COMPLETE COLLECTION OF ALL THE 

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See the third vol. of the Old Monthly Magazine; Nos. XXXII. 
XXXIII. and XXXIV. of the Classical Journal. 

A DISSERTATION ON NULLITIES AND DI- 
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illustrated. See the end of the first edition of the Translation of 
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A POETICAL PARAPHRASE on the SPEECH 
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HYMNS. See the before-mentioned Sallust, Julian, 
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